Bottom of the River
by eleventhwarrior125
Summary: Caroline Forbes is one of the best vampire hunters in the world, stationed with her friends in New Orleans. Klaus is the one vampire she can't manage to kill. Rated M for violence, profanity, and sexy times.
1. Put the Gun Down

**AN: Basically I'm sick of Julie's shit and felt like writing something sassy. K? Rated 'M' for violence, profanity, and sexy times. Trigger warnings for a mention of suicidal thoughts, gore, death, sexual situations, and gun violence. If any of these things bother you, you don't have to read this. I don't take offense. **

_Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much- Oscar Wilde_

Caroline Forbes never ceased to be amazed by the lengths people were willing to go to stay young. Anti-aging creams and botox treatments were still in the realm of comprehension to her. Not that she really gave a shit about how many wrinkles she was going to get, but she could at least sympathize with plastic-surgery addicts and needle-jockeys.

But people willing to live off of blood just to stay twenty forever? That's just nuts. Of course, there had to be people willing to turn those vapid, materialistic morons into blood-sucking murderers. 'People' being applied loosely; 'vampire' was a better word for them. Not the sparkling, brooding, masochistic kind of vampire, either, but the kind that could rip a human apart without a second thought.

Vampires needed supply of course, they don't sell blood at any local Walmart for a buck-ninety-nine. Most lived off of street urchins or club goers: transients that the media didn't really give a shit about. Recently, the trend had been towards more reliable, compliant access to fresh blood that didn't end up in a body trail.

In the last decade, dozens of warehouses sprouted up over the country, housing captured humans that served as excellent walking blood bags for several months before said blood bags were disposed of. The sales pitch for the warehouses promoted humans being tapped into and then healed for the next customer. Unfortunately for the humans, they would be subjected to being drained and then healed for months on end and being conscious for every waking minute.

_Fortunately_ for the humans in the warehouse that sat along the docks in New Orleans, Louisiana, Caroline was getting ready to break them out. Though the vampires inside were stronger and faster, she was stronger than most humans and much smarter.

She never really cared for the catsuits female action stars wore in the movies: they were always too tight and cumbersome for hand to hand combat. Her tastes favored black cargo pants tucked into standard issue hunting boots and even a sweatshirt for the cooler nights. Tonight, unfortunately, was not even remotely cool. The muggy air wasn't nearly the hellish temperature that it'd been when the sun was up, but she still found herself sweating through her cotton tank top.

Perched atop a roof exactly one hundred yards away from the target warehouse, she knelt to wire a video camera to her transmitter which allowed for her to send a live video feed to anyone within a two mile radius. Caroline touched a finger to her plastic earpiece, which was nestled innocuously beneath a head of golden curls. "Bonnie, you got a visual?"

"_Positive, Carebear,_" a voice crackled in her ear. "_I still don't have a visual from Stefan. Ten minutes 'till go time."_

"_Got it,"_ Caroline said, deciding to take the time to check her weapons again. She had two Velcro thigh sheaths running around her legs, which contained five wooden stakes each. An ankle holster just above her right hunting boot held a Glock 27, filled with oak-infused bullets that wouldn't fragment upon ejection. At her waist, she had two Glock 23's, filled with 9mm oak bullets as well. About ten clips of ammo were nestled in her pockets, another plus of cargo pants.

Caroline put on her brass knuckles, which had been doused in vervain and engraved upon by her mother. She traced a finger over the brass knuckles, "I guess I'm doing the opposite of what you wanted me to do with my life, right mom?" she whispered to herself, as if her mother was now some sort of cosmic entity watching over her instead of just a rotting corpse in the ground. She tied her curls into a bun atop her head.

"_Bonnie, do you have a visual?" _Caroline heard Stefan ask over the line.

"_Positive, Stefan. I need everyone to check in over comm again."_

Caroline sighed and pressed her finger to the earpiece. "_Caroline, checking in._"

Over the comm, she could hear everyone else check in as well:

"_Stefan, checking in."_

_ "Elena, checking in."_

_ "Ditto," _Caroline heard a voice identical to Elena's say. Katherine, Elena's twin sister, always had something sassy to say in response to an order.

"_Do we have everyone?"_ Alaric, the team leader, asked.

"_Sounds like it, Alaric,"_ Damon answered. Alaric, Damon, and Bonnie were all in the van, which had been parked several blocks away. The cameras that Caroline and Stefan had installed would provide them with a bird's-eye view of the action while the field agents were in the middle of it.

The area they had to cover was about a half-mile radius of warehouses, boathouses, and loading docks in the Port of New Orleans. Shipping containers were like skyscrapers, stacked hundreds of feet high and filled to the brim with anything from drugs to electronics. The warehouse they were planning to infiltrate was approximately three-thousand square feet, with two stories and multiple exits. Several weeks before, Bonnie had stolen the blueprints for the building from the city clerk's office.

Caroline had been assigned to the east entrance, a door leading off of one of the docks and was closest to the Mississippi. Stefan got the north entrance, and the twins got the western entrances. If everything went according to plan, they'd slay every vampire in their path and free the humans kept inside.

Of course, nothing ever went according to plan.

The lower level, according to the purloined blueprints currently in Bonnie's possession, had been split into dozens of rooms for vampire customers to do their business in. The warehouse was operated much like a brothel was, only the humans that serviced that vampires had absolutely no way of resisting. The humans were treated no better than prisoners and probably hadn't seen sunlight in months. Caroline would be damned if she didn't save them or die trying.

She climbed down the fire escape of the building she'd been surveying from, preparing to get into position. The east entrance was the farthest from the docks, shielded from both security cameras and fog lights. Caroline would have to kick in the heavy wooden door, but she'd have no other obstacles to get through once she infiltrated the premises.

"_Everyone is in position,_" Alaric said, obviously utilizing the cameras the team had installed. "_It's go time_."

It went just as unexpectedly as Caroline had expected it to. The second Katherine had kicked in her door on the other side of the building and threw in her vervain grenades, the entire warehouse erupted into chaos. The humans who had been compelled not to resist their captors immediately started flooding into the halls as their captors fled in Caroline and Stefan's direction. The vamps caught in the blast radius of Katherine's grenades howled in pain, only to be staked in the back while they were down. Elena followed her twin's line of fire and kept her stakes at the ready as the humans fled from their rooms where they'd been held prisoner.

Caroline's door frame had shattered into hundreds of wooden splinters when she'd kicked the door. She rushed in, her Glock 23 in her right hand, firing at any rush of vampire movement. Once a vamp was struck by a wooden bullet anywhere on their body, they slowed down to a speed that Caroline could aim at and deliver a kill shot. Shouts and cries of surprise echoed through the dim halls as the walking blood bags fled their rooms like whores liberated from a brothel. Harsh fluorescent lights flickered overhead to illuminate the barren cement hallway. Doors, dozens of them, were on either side of her. She had to clear each and every one of them to check for remaining targets or wounded humans.

A flash of movement ahead of her made her swing her vervain wrought brass knuckles out to catch whatever vamp thought could outrun her. As soon as her fist connected, a redheaded she-vamp crumpled to the floor. Caroline promptly staked her. Another round of gunfire erupted from the north entrance, where Stefan was facing off with custom TEC-9's, a rapid-fire handgun fitted with wooden bullets. Bullets flew like fragments of paper firecrackers, catching fleeing vamps with the same kind of speed.

"_Care, we've got movement on the second floor. There should be a flight of stairs 200 feet ahead of you on your right," _Bonnie chimed in over the comm.

Caroline touched her earpiece with her free hand, "Copy that. Moving to intercept." Glock at the ready, she advanced forward and made sure to check every room she came across for stray vamps. Most of the vampires, perhaps twenty of them, had fled towards Stefan on the north side and Elena on the southwest side. Katherine continued to throw vervain grenades to keep the vampires cornered.

Just as Bonnie had said, there was a flight of stairs on Caroline's right. She ascended them as stealthily as she could, fingers tensing on the grip of her Glock as well as squeezing her brass knuckles testily. Unlike the first floor of the warehouse, the second floor was just one big room, with painted-over windows and exposed beams hanging around to give it character. Fluorescent track lights helped her human eyes find her target. On her far left, a man was hastily unloading a six-foot high steel safe against the wall, frantically stuffing wads of money into a duffel bag. She only took a second to aim and shot a warning shot that fluttered just past his ear.

"Put your hands up where I can see them and turn around," she commanded, her voice harsh as she kept him in her sights on her gun.

"Whatever you say, love," the man replied icily, his gravelly voice almost a low growl as he turned to face her. Their eyes seemed to widen as they regarded each other's appearance. He was the only vamp tonight she'd seen with a tailored suit on, leading her to believe that he was the proprietor of the establishment she'd broken into. His face, whilst covered with sandy-blond stubble, was simultaneously soft and angular. Startlingly blue eyes matched Caroline's own, pupils dilating with excitement. His pouty lips turned up into a sly smile as he assessed the woman who had her gun trained on him.

"You're awfully chipper for a man who's just had his business broken into," Caroline snipped, her expression stony and impassive.

"What makes you think this is _my _business, love?" His accent flowed naturally, so it obviously wasn't the fake cockney she'd had men put on for her before.

"Power of deduction," she replied, tensing for him to make a move and wondering why she hadn't pulled the trigger yet.

Her hesitation was a mistake as he had crossed the room and knocked her off of her feet faster than she could have shot him. Her back hit the cement floor with a hollow thud, the blow knocking the breath from her lungs. The gun went flying out of her grasp. The lights above her cut into her vision like knives, piercing her mind as she tried to get her bearings. He'd pinned her to the floor beneath him before she could even think to stand, his hand at her throat as he took a deep breath to inhale her scent.

"Agh, did you just _smell _me?" Caroline croaked, struggling under his weight.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing hunting vampires?" The man whispered to her, his lips ghosting by her ear.

"I dunno," she snarled, catching him on the jaw with her vervain wrought brass knuckles. The blow sent him reeling, staggering off of her and clutching his handsome face in pain. "I think I'm just good at it." Caroline lunged for her fallen gun, reaching it just as the man tried tackling her again.

He smiled once more, though his eyes remained terrifyingly cold and calculating as she leveled her sights on him. "You're fast for a human."

Caroline smirked, her finger itching for the trigger. "You're slow for a vampire." For some reason, her finger wouldn't move, as if it were frozen in place by the hand of that proverbial conscience everyone yabbers on about. The trigger was like some obstinate obstacle that she couldn't sneak around. _Shoot him_, her inner voice screamed, _for the love of God, shoot him._ But she couldn't.

"I'm just going easy on you, love," he growled, before flashing to one of the windows on the other side of the warehouse floor, some one hundred feet from Caroline. "By the way, I'm Klaus," he called. A blink of an eye later, one of the windows had been shattered and her target was gone. One of the lights from the docks shone through the hole in the glass, occupying the space where this man, _Klaus,_ had stood merely seconds before.

"Dammit," Caroline spat, touching a finger to her earpiece, "Bonnie, I lost him. Bastard's faster than I expected."

_"No time to go after him now, Care. I called in an anonymous tip to the police that there are dozens of wounded civilians stuck here. We need to get out before the ambulances arrive," _Bonnie answered.

"Copy that. Moving to extraction point," Caroline trotted back downstairs, her mind still reeling from her encounter with Klaus. Katherine, Elena, and Stefan were all waiting for her in the hall. Gray bodies of slain vampires were strewn haphazardly all over the place, victims of the team's seamless attack. Some died with their eyes clamped shut with pain, but most of them died with their eyes glazed over like stone, staring glassily up at the ceiling like those proverbial haunted statues.

The lights above them flickered as they jogged out of the warehouse through the east entrance, distant sirens from police cars and ambulances wailing discordantly. Alaric's van sat idling, the ancient motor purring and stuttering occasionally. Its black exterior blended in nicely with the pitch-dark night, broken only by the harsh glow of streetlamps. They slid in through the rear doors, making sure that no straggling vamps were following them.

Damon, who sat in the driver's seat, stepped on the gas the second the rear doors had closed, wanting to get out of there way before the police arrived. Alaric's van had been outfitted with three computers on a bolted-down desktop, modeled after one of those spy vans in those James Bond movies. Bonnie sat in her own wheelie chair, which was secured to the van's wall whilst in transit so she wouldn't slide around. Much like the seating on military aircraft, there were fold-down seats welded to the side of the van, just enough for the field team to strap into so they could get a speedy exit.

They all breathed a sigh of relief once they were a mile away from the docks, the distant sirens fading away into nothingness. Stefan began to laugh, panting and exhausted, his knuckles beginning to swell up from having punched someone. The rest of them chimed in, giddy after a good night's work.

Caroline was the only one who didn't join in, her mind elsewhere, her thoughts still revolving around that terrifyingly enigmatic _Klaus_. He had the chance, certainly the ability to kill her and yet he hadn't. He was much faster and way stronger than any other vampire she'd fought, cunning and (dare she think it) stunningly handsome. She looked down at her hands and glared at the way they shook. She should've pulled the trigger and at least pumped a few wooden rounds into him before he eventually got away. Every fiber of her being had screamed at her to pull the trigger and yet she didn't.

Katherine, who sat next to her, elbowed Caroline. "Hey, chin up. We did good tonight. Kicked some undead ass and saved the sheep from the slaughter."

Bonnie glanced over from her place across from the computers. "Are you still beating yourself up over that vamp that got away?"

"I guess, yeah," Caroline replied, offering a tight smile to reassure them.

"Can't catch 'em all, blondie," Damon said, his eyes still on the road as he drove.

"Yeah, Care, these sons of bitches will always be faster than us," Katherine shrugged, "Some of them will always get away."

"I know," Caroline clenched her trembling hands into fists so the others wouldn't see, "I just hate knowing that the vamp that got away could be killing someone." The others seemed to accept her answer and settled back in their seats. Stefan stared knowingly at Caroline, his brooding gaze boring into her forehead. She met his eyes and mouthed 'later' at him, a promise that they could talk in private once they got back to HQ.

HQ was an old apartment building that had been abandoned during Hurricane Katrina, but had since been restored by Alaric and Damon. It sat just inside the Lower Ninth Ward, the water lines still woven into the brick on the second story. Alaric, Caroline, and Damon all paid for the place five years ago, which they'd gotten for a fraction of what it was worth now. It had six windows on every side, three for each floor, with three apartments up top.

When the first got the place, the wooden floors were warped and moldy, the roof was in tatters, and most of the windows had been boarded up. Over the course of a year, Damon and Alaric had managed to restore it back to its former glory. The neighborhood around it had been rebuilt by volunteers from all sorts of churches and organizations, but their HQ had been left to rot until the three of them slapped down the down payment. The bricks on the outside, faded to brown, were the only reminder of its traumatic brush with Hurricane Katrina.

The second floor had been kept as apartments, enough for Damon, Alaric, and Caroline to live in. The first floor, however, was where the magic happened. Everyone limped inside, stripping off their weapons and special gear to place in the allotted space on the wall. The east wall, the wall directly to the right of the door, was covered from floor to ceiling with hooks and even metal cabinets. On said hooks were all of the sharp instruments: stakes, machetes, knives, and even a couple swords. The cabinets housed all of the guns, wood-infused bullets, and vervain grenades.

On the western wall hung long ropes of woven vervain, some fresh some not. Near the furthest wall hung two punching bags, with mats for sparring and wrestling propped up against the wall. Piles of boxing gloves, mitts, forearm and shin guards, and even a torso guard were strewn haphazardly around.

Exhausted as they were, the field team couldn't just take their weapons home with them and collapse into bed: they still had to file everything away and take stock of how much ammo they used. Caroline had gone through two clips on her Glocks, not a big loss. Stefan had gone through a whopping ten clips, having used the rapid fire TEC-9's after drawing out the vamps. Katherine had blown up four vervain grenades, and Elena had snapped three stakes in the hand-to-hand combat.

Every round, every stake, every grenade, and every hospital visit had to be accounted for: money was tight, like it always was. The team made it work because they knew that what they were doing was worth every penny.

Elena and Katherine were the first ones to leave, only after Katherine had kissed Stefan goodnight. They lived in their tiny little house on the other side of town, so they could be near the Xavier University campus, where Katherine was studying to be an explosives expert and Elena was getting ready to become a marine biologist. Bonnie followed soon after, going back to her dorm room at Tulane University.

When Caroline was filing away her left over clips of ammo, Stefan sidled over next to her, mindful of Damon and Alaric's proximity. "So what happened in the warehouse? What's got you so riled up?" he asked, voice laced with concern. He'd always looked out for Caroline, ever since they'd met in first grade.

Caroline sighed, counting her unused bullets before admitting: "I choked, Stefan. I had him in my sights, but I couldn't move my finger. And anytime I sit still, my hands start shaking and my fingers won't stop twitching. I'm losing it."

Stefan lowered his voice some more. "Caroline, your mom's Parkinson's didn't set in until her thirties. I think that you're so convinced that she passed it on to you that you're seeing symptoms that aren't there." His voice was gentle, but she could still hear his condescending tone.

She bit her lip. "Stefan, I told you about the new genetic testing going on down at Tulane, remember? They claim to have identified the specific genetic mutation that causes Parkinson's disease. I sent in a sample of my blood a month ago. I got the results back this morning."

"And you haven't told anyone? You didn't tell me? What did the tests say?" Stefan demanded, his heart pounding in fear for the answer he knew was coming.

"If the gene they claim to have identified is the Parkinson's gene, then I have it. My blood had what they were looking for," she snorted humorlessly, shaking her head as she filed away her Glock 23's and 27's. _Even if the tests were wrong, I'd find out well enough when I hit thirty. _

Stefan's eyes searched her down-trodden expression. "You don't seem surprised," he noted.

"I'm disappointed, yeah, but not surprised. I was sure enough of it before now that I decided not to go to college, didn't I?" She waved her hand to gesture at their HQ. "That's why I can afford to live so dangerously."

"But that's not why you choked up on the trigger, Care. I know you. Even when you're living from paycheck to paycheck or been dumped, you never let it get to you where you're on mission. Tell me exactly what happened," Stefan had always, annoyingly, known when she was holding something back.

"He was fast, faster than any vamp that I've ever come across. He had power, but he didn't flaunt it. I can tell, you know, when a guy is compensating for something. I could've killed him, but I didn't. He could have killed me, but he didn't," Caroline sighed, shutting the cabinet drawer and sitting down on one of the chairs to unlace her combat boots. Stefan drew up a chair and sat next to her.

"And?" he prompted.

"Nothing. We just had a mutual willingness to let the other live. Klaus is an oddity, I'll give you that."

"Oh, so it's _Klaus_, now?" Stefan's expression remained impassive. "You can't allow yourself to believe that he'll show you the same mercy again. You have to remember that he's a killer."

"I haven't forgotten," Caroline said, her voice hard but laden with exhaustion. "_Believe me, I haven't forgotten,"_ she repeated underneath her breath.

**Short first chapter. Also, the build-up is going to be heinously long. But your patience will be rewarded with so much smut you'll get sick of it. **

**ONWARD!**


	2. Till the Casket Drops

**lAN: So the first chap was all over the place, I'll admit that. There are werewolves in this fic, but Tyler didn't kill anyone so he didn't become one. Klaus is the hybrid. But that'll be said in the story anyway. Enjoy!**

Lockwood's had always been the kind of bar that hid from the flashing lights and the fannypackers, nestled between a couple of restaurants in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was the locals' refuge from the aftershocks of Katrina. Tyler Lockwood, the owner since age nineteen, had raised money for food, clean water, and blankets for the homeless while the city was being rebuilt. He kept prices on the booze affordable, perhaps just to spite those over-priced joints up in the French Quarter.

The bar was primarily inhabited by locals, but whenever an out-of-towner arrived, everyone kept their mouths shut. People who drank there lived off of minimum wage, working long-ass shifts at jobs most people would spit at. It wasn't anything special: four walls and a ceiling with a karaoke machine that cranked out 80's power ballads on Thursdays. But for the people who worked there, it was home.

"Hey, Care!" Tyler shouted from behind the bar, relieved to see his bartender's face. The locals came here in droves on Fridays nights, eager to dance away the woes of the week and wash it down with whatever he had on tap. Caroline smiled, jumping behind the bar after wading through a sea of thirsty customers.

"Whaddalya have?" she asked, taking the crowd over from Tyler so he could go fix the lights in the gravel parking lot out back. He was always grateful to have her around, especially after what she did for him.

Almost two years ago, Caroline was solemnly celebrating her twenty-first birthday by herself, toasting to another year down without any sign of the Parkinson's that had killed her mother. Tyler had been serving up drinks to a slow crowd of regulars (occasionally hitting on Caroline). A couple of intoxicated bikers making a tour out west from Tallahassee had strolled in, obviously looking for a fight. They'd picked on Tyler until he asked them to leave, which was when they pulled him over the bar by his armpits.

Caroline had intervened, knocking them unconscious so she could have time to wait for the cops to respond. Tyler asked her if she wanted a job right there and then.

The regulars at the bar knew her well and respected her. Every once in a while, she'd get some belligerent drunk hassling her, but most of them knew to leave well enough alone. "Hey, Ern, the usual?" she'd say, calling to the painter. "Manuel, got a draft with tons of head with your name on it," she'd slid the glass of beer down to the man who redid the roof on her HQ. "Vodka tonic for you, Tee," she'd shout, raising a glass up for the head waitress from Louis'.

'Suppose you could say she was loved here, most of all by Tyler. She wasn't blind to the way he stared at her from afar while she wiped down the bartop at the end of the night. They'd slept together a couple of times: just physical encounters for her, some way of releasing her extra stress. She ended it when she saw that he was becoming attached. He'd understood, sweet thing that he was. That didn't make it any easier.

Once everyone had gotten their drinks, Tyler noticed a purple splotch of a bruise on her shoulder blades, peeking innocuously out from beneath the fabric of her tank. "Whoa," he came over to her, "What the hell happened to you?" Caroline sighed, remembering the way Klaus had slammed her into the concrete floor. Her back would probably never feel right ever again, and she had been had at work trying to conceal her limp.

"Would you believe me if I said I slipped in the grocery store?" she asked, knowing the answer. Tyler gave her a knowing look before ghosting his fingers over her bruise. "Alright, fine, I got into a fight," Caroline gave only half a lie this time, hoping at least he'd buy _that. _

"You don't have a boyfriend, do you?" Tyler asked, his eyes going wide.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," she laughed trying to reassure him. "I'm not being abused, Ty. I was having a go at the gym and some dude wanted to spar with me. He knocked me down, but I knocked him out." She held up her hand to let him see the bruises from her brass knuckles (although he didn't recognize them as such). "See? Kicked his ass to kingdom come."

Tyler believed her, his shoulders sagging with relief. "Good. I just… I just don't like seein' you hurt, is all."

Caroline smiled, clapping him hard on his shoulder. "I can take care of myself, honey bunches. Heya Sandy, what can I getcha?" she turned to a customer before Tyler could say anything else. She hated feeling guilty for not being able to reciprocate his feelings. Avoidance was usually what she resorted to.

The door swung open at the front, clanging loudly as it slammed shut again. "Caroline Forbes!" A familiar voice yelled. Caroline looked up to see one of her best friends, Bonnie, sashaying in with her short little dress on. Bonnie's classes ended late on Friday nights, so she always came straight to Lockwoods afterwards.

"Hey Bon, what's up?"

Bonnie grinned, sliding onto a barstool before wiping the sweat off of her forehead. "Did you know that a transformer exploded on campus? Air conditioner's been out for nearly two days now. Have any idea how goddamn hot it gets in one of those stuffy classrooms in the middle of _July_?"

"Real goddamn hot, I'm guessin'," Ernie called, his growl deep and his smile lopsided. Ernie liked to joke that he only drank beers that were as dark as he was, which made it really easy for Caroline to pick out the draft they had on tap that he'd like the best. A real heavy drinker when he put his mind to it, but he was harmless all the same.

Bonnie smiled back at him and his drinking buddies from the painting service at their table, stunning them. Caroline's seemingly endless supply of pretty girlfriends made her an asset by way of keeping customers.

"Hey, how are you healing up?" Bonnie asked, lowering her voice so that Tyler couldn't overhear. Caroline poured her a beer.

"I don't I'll be able to walk in a straight line for a while, that's for sure. That vamp threw me for a number," Caroline grimaced when she bent down to grab another bar rag.

"I wouldn't be able to do what you do. Elena sprained her wrist again, and Alaric's van broke down. We all could use a break," Bonnie gave Caroline a significant look. "And by that I mean an _actual_ break."

Caroline shook her head. "Every time I let myself relax, somebody dies and I did nothing to stop it. Besides, I get restless if I go too long between slays."

Bonnie sighed and took a swig from her glass. "Imma just call you Buffy from now on, you little freak."

"Yeah, well I'm not as hot as Sarah Michelle Gellar."

"Who's that?"

"She played Buffy on the TV show. For a vampire hunter, you really suck at identifying our idols," Caroline playfully swatted her friend with the bar rag. They chatted for a little while, Caroline periodically making drinks for the customers. It was nearly 2 am by the time Tyler finally sent her home, telling her that they're opening up early tomorrow for the 4th of July.

They walked towards their car, giggling stupidly as they absentmindedly waved away mosquitoes. The night sky over New Orleans was clear but starless, the constellations having been blotted out by the city lights. Humidity was relentless, descending upon all the people like a dense cloud of oppressive mugginess.

Bonnie eyed Caroline's bruised shoulders. "Do you want me to heal that for you? Nature doesn't like it when her agents get hurt."

Caroline grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so I'm Nature's agent, now?"

"You slay vampires. Nature likes you." Bonnie glanced around, but the parking lot was empty. "Hold still." She placed her hands on Caroline's shoulders and closed her eyes, the moon casting a glow over the witch as she hummed. "_Versmatos maches gesund. Tunsha malsen dachren."_

For a mere moment, the pain of the bruises and the sore back paled in comparison to the fire that raged inside of Caroline. It passed, like ripping off a band-aid, and it was replaced with a warm glow underneath Bonnie's fingertips. The broken blood vessels just beneath her skin had been repaired in seconds. All of her sore muscles felt as if they'd been massaged by some ridiculously handsome cabana boy whose name was ostentatiously _machisimo._

"Agh," Caroline groaned when Bonnie stopped, "you should just become one of those psychic chicks for the tourists to fawn over. Tell them that they've collected some real bad _ju-ju_ over their lifetimes and the only way to fix that is to pay up."

Bonnie grinned and swatted her arm. "Nature didn't give me my gifts for a marketing scheme, Carebear."

"Oh, yeah? What did Nature give you gifts for, then?" Caroline jested, walking without pain (for the first time in days) towards Bonnie's car.

"War, I guess." Bonnie shrugged, sliding into her 1993 Mercedes C class, its ancient chassis groaning as the girls piled in.

"Is that what you'd call this?" Caroline asked, all joking manner aside. "Are we in a war, Bonnie?"

The witch snorted derisively, feigning nonchalance. "Look, I shouldn't have said anything, alright?"

Caroline grabbed Bonnie's hand to get her to look into the blonde's eyes. "This isn't a hobby to me like it is to the others. I'm taking this as seriously as you and Alaric do."

Bonnie gave her friend's hand an affectionate squeeze. "It frustrates me when the team keeps looking on to a life after hunting. What we're doing is good work. You're a fantastic fighter, Care. I'm glad you're in this for the long haul."

"As long as I can still aim and fire, I'll stick with you." _How much longer I have until I can't even hold a gun remains to be seen. _

The witch grinned. "_Até a morte." _

"Until the death," Caroline agreed.

**Short filler chap followed by actual plotty chap. Just a warning: Klaus is going to be absolutely evil towards Caroline in the beginning. I want to take him back to the bad boy days, you know? He's dangerous. **


	3. Blue Eyes Blind

**AN: For the record, Caroline practices a multitude of different martial arts, but she mostly uses Krav Maga for the first couple of chapters. Krav Maga is a very efficient fighting style, and is very helpful in closed-quarter fights as well as fights against opponents that are very fast. She'll be using a couple of Aikido moves as well, which also doesn't require super-strength.**

**Also, Klaus is bisexual. That is all.**

_ Being strangled and being smothered are two similar yet separate sensations. Strangulation is sharp, the point of obstruction in the airway clear and defined. There's a target to fight against. Being smothered, on the other hand, conjures up a unique sense of helplessness. Any notion of breath is stowed away, just out of reach. _

_ The darkness was what was smothering her. Tentacles of black nothingness wrapped in that proverbial, enigmatic knowledge that she was dreaming. Though she knew that she could not be physically harmed in the confines of her dormant mind, she couldn't fight off the oppressive force that kept breath from her lungs. _

_ Being simultaneously blind and deaf in her nightmare was worse than death to her: the senses that she depended upon on her hunts now completely shredded. It was as if she were chained to a lead ball at the bottom of the ocean, unable to breath, see, or cry out for help. _

_ Her sight and hearing all flooded back at once. Liz Forbes was lying in front of her, feet from her hospital bed, stretched out in a pool of her own blood on the hospital floor. Her gun was lying just out of her reach, floating aimlessly in the outskirts of the scene like a prop that would go unnoticed in a horror movie. _

_ Her father, Bill Forbes, had been visiting his ex-wife's hospital room (she was recovering from falling in the shower), with his teenage daughter when a vampire had crashed in. It looked like a demon to Caroline, baring its teeth at the terrified blonde. _

_ "I'm not here for you," it had said, those black eyes training on her parents. Liz had reached for the gun she kept underneath her pillow, but she didn't have the strength to aim it correctly. Her Parkinson's had stripped her of everything she valued, turning her from hunter to prey. Liz could all but watch as the shots she fired flew into the drywall as her ex-husband was torn apart in front of his daughter. _

_ Caroline felt her father's blood coat her as he was ripped limb-from-limb in front of her. Her mother was dead soon after that, a simple snapped neck. The vampire was gone before Caroline's screams reached the night nurses. Her most haunting memory was of her mother's dead eyes boring into hers, Liz's head twisted at an odd angle. _

_ But the dream was worse than her memories. Liz Forbes' eyes remained lifeless, head cocked with the bones of her neck jutting out awkwardly. Her lips moved as she spoke, her voice softer than an echo, rattling like the bones of the dead: "Monsters wear different masks, Caroline. Never forget that." _

_ "I haven't forgotten, mommy," Caroline promised gently. "Believe me, I will never forget."_

_ "The cruel use mercy to manipulate the weak," the corpse of her mother intoned. _

_ "I'm not weak, mom."_

_ Liz's head did move then, still twisting unnaturally as her eyes remained locked upon her teenage daughter. "You're the weakest of us all. But you have cruelty in you as well. You will tear this world apart if you don't end it now, Caroline. You'll be saving many lives by ending your own." _

_ "I won't kill myself," she spat at her mother, her anger rising. _

_ Someone familiar appeared before her, his handsome face hiding beneath fangs and veins. Klaus. "I have no problem doing it for you, love," he said, his accent flowing over her before her flashed forward to bury his fangs in her neck. The dream dissolved as her blood slowly drained away. _

She awoke to find herself pressed between bed sheets that were soaked in her own sweat. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as she eyed the clock on her nightstand. **3:20 AM**. "God fucking damn it," Caroline swore, punching her pillow in frustration before sitting up. No matter how many times she blinked, she couldn't get the image of her mother's dead eyes boring holes into her.

Her bedroom was nothing special, the pale moonlight filtering past her thin curtains to fall on her sparse furniture. A dresser, a bed, and a nightstand were all she could afford at the moment: helping to pay for her friends' college really sucked up a majority of her salaries. A door led off to her very own bathroom, and another led off into the hallway.

Part of her wished that she was in a dorm room, that she should be crashed out at some crazy frat party instead of holed up with two guys in an apartment/training facility. But she knew that she didn't have much time left where her body still functioned properly, so she didn't want to spend a good chunk of it worrying about grades.

Caroline laid in bed for another couple hours, her mind running through endless puzzles and reliving some of her failed hunting missions. Her eyes traced cracks on the plaster ceiling and focused in the pores of her exposed-brick walls. No matter what she did, she couldn't fall asleep again. Every time she shut her eyes, she could see that vampire Klaus' demonic visage flashing towards her, fangs protruding like porcelain spikes to impale her.

At around six o'clock, chinks of vibrant sunrise tore past the gaps in her curtains. She sighed in resignation and got up, changing into a tank top and a pair of baggy basketball shorts. Caroline tip-toed out of her bedroom, past Damon and Alaric's rooms, before stopping at the kitchen and grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

They couldn't afford to put a kitchen in each of their bedrooms, so Damon and Alaric had just installed one right off of the stairwell. It was big enough to seat the entire team around the granite island in the center, but it was easy to clean.

She headed downstairs, sunrise light filtering through the slats of the shuttered windows. They had to keep the windows covered as to not draw unnecessary attention to their training room. Caroline sighed again, not out of irritation but of contentment. This room was her solace, her safe place. She unrolled a mat underneath one of the hanging punching bags before donning her Everlast MMA gloves.

Her mom had first gotten her a punching bag when she was eight, a gift for keeping up with her Krav Maga classes. Her parents put her through multitudes of martial arts classes before settling on Krav Maga. Caroline loved it because it was efficient, straight-to-the-point punches and kicks that didn't have any flips or showy moves.

Her punches were swift and landed true, striking the punching bag with a muffled thud. She stood back and delivered a couple of snap kicks before following up with a series of quick jabs. Rage and years of practice had turned her into an efficient killer, more like a sharp sword than a heavy hammer. While everyone else on the team preferred modern weapons (or in Bonnie's case, magic), Caroline loved closed-quarter brawl with vamps twice as fast as she was.

The satisfaction of perfection was something she could savor. Every punch, every kick, and every block had been practiced a thousand times over. It's not that she would claim to be a master: she was learning something new every day. But Caroline's heart was in her fighting.

She'd been at work for an hour before Damon and Alaric came downstairs. "I thought I heard grunting," Damon said, his leery smile perpetually making everything he said sensual.

"At least I'm willing to stick my neck out in the field," Caroline replied icily. "Gotta stay in killing shape, don't I?" She let loose another flurry of punches.

"Yeah, 'cause you're not resourceful enough to learn how to handle a gun properly," Damon retorted.

Caroline whirled around, her padded hands on her hips. "I shoot just fine, thank you very much."

"You shoot like a girl," he said, taking a step towards her.

"You _fight_ like a girl," she spat back, taking a step towards him.

"Alright, enough!" Alaric shouted irritably. "I'm so done listening to the two of you bickering like fucking five-year-olds. Damon, go to work. Caroline, get on your shin guards." The testy duo glared at each other for another minute before Damon smiled that easy-going smile of his and walked out the door. "What is it with you two?" Alaric demanded, once he was gone.

Caroline sighed, plopping down onto the mat so she could strap on the shin guards. "I know that he's planning on asking out Elena."

"So?" Alaric prodded. "Everyone knows that."

"Given his track record with women, I don't feel like seeing my friend get hurt," she said, voice hardening before she stood again.

"You mean you, right? Damon told me he was an ass to you when you went out in high school," Alaric prodded gently, wanting to understand what was going on before one of their confrontations ended in a brawl.

"'Ass' is an understatement, Ric. What he did was borderline abusive. Turns out he doesn't really like the word 'choice' or 'decision' very much when it comes to his girlfriends."

"He's changed."

"You think I don't fucking know that?" Caroline gritted her teeth. "I know that he's better now. But I don't want him to revert to his old ways if he starts dating Elena." She cleared her throat and took in a deep breath. "Jesus, I really don't want to get into this right now."

Alaric nodded and got out the training pads, which were really just padded forearm protectors that were about two feet wide. He'd call out commands: what kind of kick, how many at a time, direction, and velocity.

"Roundhouse, left, fast. Forward overhead snap kick, slow," he made her go slow so he could watch her balance, making sure that she wasn't getting sloppy. They worked for another hour, with Caroline sweating buckets. Her muscles screamed in protest as her movements became slower and more sluggish. The last thing she did was a 540 spinning crescent kick, a kick that required strength, coordination, and speed.

She ended up flat on her back, having spun too slowly in midair. Alaric peered down at her sweaty form. "Maybe you should just stick to keeping both of your feet on the ground," he suggested.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Maybe I should stop hunting vampires, too. Help me up, _muchacho_, my legs are all wobbly." He helped her to her feet.

"You smell like shit, Care," Alaric said, wrinkling his nose.

"That's what the shower's for, innit?" She replied, grinning in exhaustion.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was around noon when Caroline met with Katherine at the firing range. "Sup, beeyatch. How's the back?" Katherine greeted, her long curls pulled into a pleated braid on the side of her head.

Caroline smiled at Katherine's brusque demeanor. "It's all good. Bonnie healed it for me." Katherine had been leaning up against the outside wall of the pseudo-bunker building. The hustle and bustle of the city was a good couple of miles away, leaving the firing range to have a couple acres to itself. Dust rose from the gravel parking lot as the sun beat down upon them with clubs of fire. Both women were sweating through their tanks.

They swept inside, grateful for the minute of air-conditioned bliss. Matt Donovan, the clerk manning the cabinets, brightened instantly at the sight of the two regulars. "Ladies," he drawled, "will it be the usual for the both of you?" He stood behind a glass case which was filled with antique handguns with painted barrels and carved hilts. But to the girls, the real beauties hung behind him on the wall.

Row after row of pistols, rifles, semi-autos and full-autos adorned the wall like trophies on a corkboard. Caroline spotted something new hanging up there. "Is that the 50 caliber Desert Eagle hanging up there?"

Matt smiled hesitantly. "It's got a lot of kick, Miss Forbes. Might knock you out of them pretty boots if you don't hold it tight." His tone, while well-meaning, came off really condescending.

Katherine intervened before Caroline could snap at him. "We'll both take one. Two clips each." Matt obliged, sliding the guns over.

Katherine winked at him before swishing out to the range. They both inhaled sharply at the prospect of being back out in the smothering heat, but they were pretty much used to it by now. "_Stations 3 and 4 cleared for live fire,"_ Matt's voice crackled over the loud speaker. There were ten stations total, no more than bathroom stalls without doors on the front and back. On wires with pulleys were the standard paper targets the police used during weapons clearance tests.

Caroline took station 3, making sure that both she and her companion had their ear protection on before taking aim. Matt was right: the Desert Eagle gave kick harder than an angry horse. She didn't lose her grip though, squeezing through the recoil to aim and fire repeatedly. Katherine staggered a little every time she fired, being much smaller than her friend was, but she aimed again just as fast.

Once they'd both gone through two clips of ammo, they removed their ear protection and pressed a button on the side of the firing stall. Their paper targets were sent via wire and pulley so they could assess their firing abilities. Caroline had gotten her paper target several times in the left lung before grouping a couple of times in the center of mass.

On their way out after returning the weapons, Katherine left her paper target on the counter in front of Matt. "Did I hold on tight enough for you?" she asked innocently, a smug smile coating her face. To Caroline's dismay, she'd shot holes in the face of her target to mimic a smiley face one would make out of skittles.

They burst out laughing when they staggered out into the parking lot. "Oh, one of these days you'll give that boy a heart attack," Caroline giggled.

"He deserved it. '_Might knock you out of them pretty boots if you don't hold tight'. _Stupid motherfucker gon' get got talkin' to me like that," Katherine glared at the building. "It'd be easier just to tell him what we do so we don't just look like some weird-ass small town girls with trigger fingers."

Caroline inclined her eyebrow. "Oh, really? I can imagine how well that would go over."

"He'd be an asset. We could use a firearms expert-,"

"That's why we have you, Kat," Caroline reminded her. Katherine merely grumbled in response.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The night of New Orleans settled around her like the steam in a sauna: cloaking her and swallowing her whole. She walked alone, brass knuckles in her pocket and Glock 27 in her bag. Though Caroline loved her friends, she still needed to be by herself for periods of time. People bustled past her as she wandered around the French Quarter, shuffling her between drunk tourists and aimless party girls.

Neon signs from nightclubs, restaurants, and bars lit up the supposedly antiquated section of the city. She hated this place with a passion: after Katrina, it was restored immediately, while FEMA dragged their feet about taking care of all the Ninth Ward refugees. While the government had shelled out millions to rebuild the tourist attractions, it was busy looking the other way while people were left homeless and broke beyond imagining.

Granted, she wasn't a native herself, but she'd lived here for five years. People she came to care about told her stories of being holed up in the Superdome or waiting on their rooftops for rescue boats. Despite her distaste for the tourists, she still had to protect them by patrolling for any wayward vampires out for a meal.

From the outside looking in, Caroline blended in with the crowd, nothing more than a mop of sweaty blond curls amidst a teeming mass of drunk assholes. She took shortcuts through backstreets and alleyways. She flinched at every movement in the edges of her peripheral vision. A door opened behind her as she passed an apartment building.

"Oh, hello love," drawled a familiar voice. Caroline whirled around in the same amount of time she had extracted her gun from her bag. Klaus' smug smile was made ever the worse as blood dribbled down his chin and onto his shirt. "Didn't expect to see you again, although I'm not saying that I'm disappointed."

Caroline's eyes narrowed at him, trying to estimate how many bullets she should put in him before she gave him the stake. "Who did you kill?" she asked, her voice harder than a flint. Her finger tensed on the trigger.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "I didn't kill anyone, darling. Just had a dinner and a show. You'd be surprised how many people think being bitten is a turn-on."

"Who's the lucky girl?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Who said anything about girls? And why don't you shoot me already?"

Caroline was about to squeeze the trigger when the gun was knocked out of her hands and she was pinned to the wall of the apartment building she was behind. She struggled against his hold as his eyes turned gold and black, the veins coiling out like venomous snakes reaching for their prey. His canines jutted out from the rest of his teeth, gleaming dangerously in the light of the streetlamp.

Something inside of her clicked. Perhaps it was just the proximity, or maybe it was just a better clarity of mind, but she knew who he really was. His demonic visage had plagued her for years in the wake of her parents' murder, haunting her dreams and presiding over her memories.

"_You,_" Caroline snarled, "_You killed my parents." _She dealt him an uppercut to the chin with her vervain-coated brass knuckles. He hissed in pain, clutching at his chin with one hand but keeping her pinned to the wall with the other. She swung at him again, only to find her fist captured in his hand, which sizzled as it came in contact with the vervain.

His face contorted with rage. "_I am beyond ancient, child. I am the King of New Orleans. I am the Original Hybrid." _With that, he crushed her hand in his grip. His other hand covered her mouth as she screamed, the bones in her hand popping like firecrackers. Fireworks exploded in her eyes as she howled. "Let me guess, you're William and Elizabeth's daughter, aren't you? That would make you _Caroline_." The way he said her name sent shivers down her spine, like a devout man saying the name of his god.

Klaus released her, unable to maintain a grip on the brass knuckles any longer. Caroline slid down the wall of the building, cradling her broken hand to her chest. She shook with pain, her teeth chattering as she fought back a groan of pain. "Had enough, love? Don't want to end up like daddy, now do we?"

Caroline uttered a war cry and snap-kicked him in the sternum. Though she knew it would heal almost immediately, she found satisfaction in hearing the sound of his sternum cracking. He staggered backwards, clutching at his chest while she launched herself at him. She kneed him in the groin as hard as she could, causing him to lose focus for another moment.

She swung another roundhouse at his face, but she knew before it even got within a foot near him that he was ready this time. Klaus caught her foot and savagely wrenched it sideways, effectively snapping her ankle. Caroline did scream this time, crumpling to the ground in a defeated heap. Had he been any other vampire, he would've been dead by now. But he was something different, something stronger and more powerful.

Caroline flinched, preparing for a killing blow. When it didn't come, she looked up at him to see his teeth bared and lips drawn into a snarl. "You'd do well to remember that my factories are off limits. Any more attacks on my kind will result in your demise, do you understand?"

But it was the look that she returned, the pain-filled insanity that she smiled with, that gave him pause. She laughed, seeing through the haze of agony that consumed her broken hand and ankle. "_Até a morte, _motherfucker," Caroline seethed. "I'm going to kill you one day, Klaus. The cruel use mercy to manipulate the weak, but I'm not weak. So don't even conceive of giving me mercy. It'll just make me mad."

Klaus lowered himself in a crouch to level his gaze with hers, his eyes flashing dangerously. "I'm not giving you mercy, sweet thing," his hand flashed out to strike her stomach, "I'm giving you a warning." Caroline gasped in pain, his blow having broken several of her ribs just by the feel of it. All of the breath fled from her lungs.

He left her there in the alleyway, gasping and groaning in pain. Tears of frustration flowed down her cheeks as she fumbled for her cellphone. "Bonnie?" she cried into the phone.

_"Care, what's wrong?"_ Bonnie answered, her voice worried.

"I had another run-in with that vamp from the other night. Suffice it to say, he didn't leave me in the same condition. I really need your healin' hands," Caroline croaked, pausing to cough as the broken ribs affected her breathing.

"_Where are you?" _her friend demanded. She told her the approximate location, unable to see the street signs through the haze. "_I'll be there in a couple of minutes, Care. You hang on, you hear me?"_

"I'm not dying, Bonnie. Just in a lot of pain," she hissed into the receiver. She dropped the cellphone after Bonnie hung up, and dragged herself to the wall where she could sit up against it. Her right hand and left ankle were both totally broken, with the brass knuckles cutting painfully into her broken flesh. She felt for her ribs, inhaling sharply as she assessed the damage. Four broken, three cracked.

Time crept on by, but after a while Bonnie's sobbing form entered into her line of vision. "Oh, _Care_," she cried upon seeing the broken state of her friend.

"Klaus really packs a wallop," Caroline joked meekly, her laughs turning into coughs. Bonnie carefully removed the brass knuckles from Caroline's broken fingers, wincing every time Caroline cried out. Caroline's breathing calmed as Bonnie gently placed her hands on either side of her face, cradling her cheeks as a mother would a child.

Caroline couldn't hear anything Bonnie was chanting, only because all she could feel were her bones snapping back into place. Her internal bleeding was repaired as well, broken blood vessels fusing back together. The only thing that kept her from crying out was the fact that Bonnie had to keep her concentration.

When Bonnie was done, she slumped down next to Caroline on the wall, panting with effort. The spell had exhausted her. Though her magic stemmed from the earth, much of it depended upon her strength as a witch. Caroline's bones were just as they had been before the run-in with Klaus, but her heart was much heavier.

"He's the one who killed my parents, Bonnie," Caroline said hoarsely. "The Original Hybrid. What the hell could he have wanted with my parents? Is that why he's spared my life both times?"

Bonnie leaned her head on Caroline's shoulder. "I think he likes you because you have a rockin' bod," the witch joked, her voice small and soft.

Caroline smiled, grateful for the fact that there was no one around to bother them. Not one hundred yards away, she could turn a corner and find herself to be just one of thousands on the streets of downtown NOLA. But there, behind the building, she and Bonnie could be safe, if only just for a little while.

"Bonnie?" Caroline asked.

"Yes?"

"What in the flying fuck is an Original Hybrid?"

**All will be made clear soon, I promise. **


	4. Texas Flood

**AN: Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I love y'all to bits. **

**So I wanted to address some confusion about Klaus' sexuality that I stated last chapter: No, Klaus will not be having sex with a man* in this story. This is completely Klaroline, I promise. But, in my interpretation of the show, Klaus has been known to flirt with members of both cisgenders*. Honestly, he has better chemistry with Stefan and Damon than Elena does. I'll admit that I didn't announce it as well as I could have, but it's not a random detail, as every miniscule detail in my stories have been mulled over. **

**Sorry about being so mean about it, but it's an issue I am personally connected to (being a bisexual myself) and I just wanted to address it. **

After Bonnie and Caroline arrived at the house, Caroline called Stefan. She was slightly taken aback by the sultry, smoky voice of Katherine on the other end. "_Hey, Care. Not that I don't love you or anything, but I really need some alone time with my Steffy-poo." _

"Klaus attacked me after draining a man not more than an hour ago, Kat. I need you guys here. Something big is going down in town and we need to find out what it is," Caroline said.

"_Klaus is the vampire hottie, right?"_

"He's the thing that killed my parents," she deadpanned. "And I have a sneaking suspicion he's not exactly a normal vampire." Katherine said they'd be over in a little while after they picked up Elena. Suddenly, Caroline smacked her forehead. "Goddamnit, I missed my shift. I gotta call Tyler." Bonnie nodded and ran upstairs to get something to eat, leaving Caroline alone to call her boss.

"_Caroline, where are you? I'm absolutely swamped,_" Tyler said.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Something's come up and I can't come in tonight. You can take it out of my paycheck, but I have something that needs to be taken care of."

"_I don't suppose you're willing to offer the specifics," _Tyler sighed, the sound of the karaoke machine whirring to life in the background.

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to know," Caroline promised, before saying goodbye and hanging up. She felt a little guilty, exploiting his feelings for her like that. She didn't have any more time to brood before Damon, Bonnie, and Alaric came downstairs, beers in hand. Alaric handed her one.

"I heard you had another run-in with Klaus," Damon said.

Caroline was about to confirm that when Stefan, Elena, and Katherine walked in. She took a swig of her beer to give her some kind of bite to keep her steady. "I'm sure you all remember me telling you about the vampire that got away from me last week at the factory. Well, I got a surprise visit from him earlier this evening. Calls himself the Original Hybrid and the King of New Orleans."

Elena snorted. "If he was the King of New Orleans, we'd have heard of him by now, wouldn't we?"

"He's powerful," Caroline continued. "Much more powerful than anything I've seen. Granted, a lot of vampires are strong, but he was able to crush my hand in the blink of an eye."

"Jesus Christ, are you alright?" Elena asked, worry evident on her face.

"I'm fine, thanks to Bonnie's witch-fu in my time of need. This guy's dangerous, much worse than anything else that we've hunted. They say knowledge is power, but we know absolutely nothing about what or who he is. Alaric, I need you to scrounge up any books or papers on Original Hybrids, and be careful to weed out the crazies."

Alaric nodded. "I have some friends in Dublin and Berlin who might know a thing or two about them. Elena, can you see if you can't find any papers on the genetics of hybrid mammal species? I know it's not very specific, but that's all I can think of."

"Of course. A couple of my professors are experts on that subject," Elena replied.

Caroline smiled. "Damon, can you hit up the underground and see if there's not someone who's got info on the King of New Orleans?"

"Marco and Enrique still owe me a couple favors. I'll see what I can do," Damon said.

"The rest of us should be looking through history for mentions of Klaus. We need to see how far back this goes, and possibly find out any of his weaknesses," Caroline breathed a sigh. "We need to find him."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Perhaps it was because only a couple hours ago, almost twenty of her bones had been shattered beyond recognition, but Caroline couldn't manage to drift off to sleep. That wasn't to say that she wasn't exhausted: she was. But part of her dreaded falling asleep and coming face-to-face with her parents' murderer.

The thing that was so vexing was the fact that Klaus had spared her life yet again, despite being given ample opportunity to drain her dry. He obviously hadn't been gentle with her, but he could have done worse. Half of her wanted to never see him again, but the other half wanted him strapped down to a table with vervain ropes so she could return at least _some _of the pain he'd caused her.

She took a deep breath, inhaling the sticky night air as her eyes traced the cracks in the plaster ceiling. What she craved was a cigarette, a couple of foul-mouthed home boys, and a bottle of really cheap whiskey. While a bottle of Crown Royal and a couple of down-to-earth guys were just a trashy gas station away, she'd vowed to give up her precious Camels once she'd started hunting vamps.

So instead of smoking or drinking, Caroline Forbes decided to say every swear word and combination thereof that she knew. She fell asleep murmuring sailor talk at the ceiling.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Klaus sauntered into the outfitted old appliance factory at around three o'clock in the morning. This was his makeshift palace: a home away from home. On the upper level, there were thirteen bedrooms, fitted with their own bathrooms, enough for his family and for any old friends coming to town to visit. His own bedroom was the largest, with a king-size bed and room for his painting whenever he was in the mood for it.

In the lower floor, it was like an armed forces training facility, with concrete walls and even a full-sized boxing ring. The boxing ring itself was more for Klaus and his brother Kol to butt heads in. Two conference rooms were set up near the front, but in the back, there were many steel-door prison cells to hold informants or traitors or just enemies that needed to be taken care of. His brother Elijah was interrogating an old associate, but Klaus didn't feel like joining in at the present time.

He climbed the stairs up to the second level with the long hallway of bedrooms. "Polo," Klaus called. "Here, boy." To his unashamed delight, the English Mastiff puppy came bounding towards him, tongue lolling lazily out of his mouth. Every inch of Polo was wriggling in excitement to see his master. The three month old's body was adorably disproportionate: big paws and a square head on a comparably smaller torso.

Klaus had always loved dogs: unwaveringly loyal, adorable, and they were always happy to see him. His first dog, Odin, was actually a wolf he'd bred when he was a teenager almost a thousand years ago. He couldn't be without a dog ever since then, usually just picking up strays from the pound. Polo had lit up upon seeing Klaus from his view from his cage at the local pound. It was love at first sight.

"Hey, boy," Klaus said. "Did you miss me?" he laughed as Polo rolled over onto his back with his legs akimbo, obviously asking for a belly rub. He obliged, sitting on the hallway floor to pet his dog. Perhaps it was because he was part werewolf, but he always found a kinship with dogs that his siblings did not.

Klaus took a running start into his bedroom, with Polo sprinting clumsily behind him, before leaping onto his bed like he used to when he was a child. Polo bounded happily up onto the bed with him, his big jowls broke into what could have been a smile. His ears weren't docked, so they flopped unconsciously whenever he moved.

Klaus didn't have to keep up a disguise or image around his dogs. He had to maintain his badass reputation around his minions, but around Polo, he could spill all of his secrets. "I met a girl today," he said, rubbing Polo's ears, "Well, I've met her _before_, I just didn't realize who she was…" he trailed off, his eyes tracing patterns on his comforter. "I killed her parents. I don't regret that, of course, but I hurt her. I shouldn't regret that either. But I do. What do you think that means? Hm? What do you think that means?"

Polo didn't answer. He merely yawned, coating Klaus' face with a wave of hot dog breath. "She kicks harder than an angry horse, I'll give you that," he chuckled as the puppy sprawled out over his stomach, with Polo's heavy head resting on the hybrid's heart. "Beautiful, witty, and a talented fighter. But angry. I haven't seen someone so full of rage in centuries. If she'd been more than human… she'd be a sight to be seen." His fingers stroked the soft fur on top of Polo's head as the dog's big brown eyes stared into his blue ones. "I get this uncanny feeling sometimes that you can understand what I'm saying to you." Polo's eyes slid shut as he drifted off to sleep.

Klaus lay awake for a long while, his eyes open but unseeing. For the first time, in a long time, he was experiencing guilt over what he'd done to Caroline. It was as if a knot had formed in the pit of his stomach and his mind could not focus on anything but the wrong he'd done her. The look on her teenage face five years ago, frozen in shock at the sight of her parents' corpses, was constantly fluttering in and out of his vision. Her screams of agony from when he snapped her bones like popsicle sticks rang in his ears, and no amount of him shaking his head in annoyance could rid him of it.

He looked down again at Polo, the perfect picture of innocence, and could not help but think of the teenage Caroline that way. What he'd done was corrupt her, fill her with rage. What she was now was an elite killing machine.

And Caroline was gunning for him.

**I made him a dog lover because he can't make more hybrids here because he doesn't have access to doppelgänger blood. In a way, his dogs are better than his hybrids, because he knows that his dogs' loyalties are real. **


	5. OVERdue

**AN: Thank y'all for soldiering on! I know everything is a little discombobulated right now in the story, but we're going to have actual plot development in this chapter! Yay!**

**PS: As you guys may have noticed, I've been using blues/soul/R&B songs as chapter titles, and I was wondering if you guys have any favorite songs from any of those genres that you think I should listen to. **

**(Trigger warning for mentions of possible molestation.)**

It had been a slow night at Forwood's. The Fourth of July came and went, leaving piles of drunk customers in its wake. It was still hotter than hell in New Orleans, made ever the worse by the bar's air conditioner's rather spotty work ethic. Every once in a while, a massive clunking noise would come from the back of the building, letting everyone inside know that the fan on the air conditioner had crapped out again.

Thankfully, Tyler's endless supply of handyman knowledge, the AC groaned into life so Caroline wouldn't have to sweat through her shift. Even for a Thursday night, there were surprisingly fewer customers than before. Only a handful of the bar's regulars were lounging around on the creaky wooden booths.

Caroline was absentmindedly wiping down the handles of the beers they had on tap when she heard a chillingly familiar, "Hello, love," behind her. She cringed before turning around to see Klaus sliding onto a barstool at the otherwise empty bartop.

"Hey, asshole. What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded, making sure that the bottle of vervain she kept right under the bar was within her reach. Her brass knuckles were in her purse, but she couldn't carry any of her concealed Glocks with her, because the bar was a gun-free environment. Tyler was still out back, tinkering with the AC again, so she didn't have to worry about his safety as well as hers.

"Testy, I see," Klaus admonished.

"That might have something do with the fact that you broke my hand, my ankle, three ribs, and cracked another four," Caroline countered, using her snippiness as a mask for her fear. "Now, what can I get for you?"

He raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"To drink, Klaus. What can I get for you to drink?" she asked again, impatient.

"Scotch on the rocks. And pour one for yourself," Klaus slapped a one hundred dollar bill on the table.

"Dewar's doesn't cost that much," Caroline said, pouring the scotch.

"I have the niggling feeling that I'm going to be here for a while," he said, sipping from his drink.

Caroline did the same, gritting her teeth at the burn of alcohol. "Oh no the hell you're not. You can drink your drink and then never come back, kapische?"

Klaus shook his head. "I need you to tell me what your parents taught you, where you and your merry little band of Buffy wannabes live, and how much you know about a vampire named Marcel."

She laughed. "I'm not telling you shit, Klaus. And if you really wanted to know what my parents taught me, you could just ask them. Oh wait, _you killed them_. And who the hell is Marcel?"

"Old associate, and you obviously don't know who he is anyway. But as for my first two questions: you will tell me everything," Klaus growled, leveling his gaze with her. His icy blue irises almost seemed to grow larger as his pupils dilated.

Caroline snorted. "You can't compel me. I'm not stupid."

"_No, you most definitely are not," _Klaus muttered under his breath, before glancing around him. His smile was eerily haunting before he said: "If you don't tell me what you know, then I'll kill everyone in this bar."

Her eyes widened as she regarded the people she considered to be her friends. For the two years that she'd worked at the bar, she felt strangely protective of the customers she served, and now some pretentious asshole was threatening their lives. "Answer this first: Why haven't you killed me?" Caroline countered, hoping to gain some insight into what she was up against.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "Why, love? Do you want me to?"

"No… it's just not like Original Hybrids to leave their victims alive," Caroline blurted, bluffing with information she didn't really have. So far, she'd gathered no new information on Original Hybrids.

He laughed. "There's only _one _Original Hybrid, darling. And he's not really known for anything, except for being profoundly impatient." Though his prior actions would have suggested a much more violent reaction, Klaus was smiling rather genuinely at her. "Now, you're going to tell me about how your parents trained you and where you and your vampire hunting crew live, or I'll start ripping apart your customers."

Caroline glanced uneasily at Ernie and his fellow regulars, knowing that most of them had families to return home to. None of them seemed to be paying any attention to Klaus or how unsettled he was making Caroline. Tyler was, thankfully, still outside. "Alright, alright," she relented. "My parents signed me up for Krav Maga when I was eight, and taught me how to shoot a pistol when I was twelve. They told me that they were vampire hunters the day before my mom had to go to the hospital for falling down a flight of stairs."

"And?" he prompted.

"What? You killed them a week later," Caroline took a sip from her scotch.

"Didn't your parents tell you _why _they were hunting vampires? Or who told them where to find me?"

Caroline smiled slyly, using her people skills to read his actual questions. "Someone's after you, and been after you for a while. That someone told my parents to keep an eye out for you. My guess is that my dad blew up one of your little factories or staked one of your minions, and that's why you killed him and his ex-wife. What you didn't know at the time was that the person who was hunting you sent my dad to do something to draw you out into the open. I mean, ripping a man limb-from-limb and then snapping his ex-wife's neck is pretty conspicuous.

"So, in your desperation, you came to the daughter of the hunters that you killed seven years ago to see if she might have even the slightest idea of who or what tipped off her parents to go after you. Am I in the ballpark?"

Klaus looked flabbergasted. "You can't just guess all that. Who've you been talking to?"

She rolled her eyes. "As much as you would like to be all mysterious and dangerous, Klaus, I can read your life story from your pretty face." Caroline knew she was testing it, but she needed to stall long enough to think up a plan to get him away from the bar.

He raised an eyebrow and leaned forward on his elbows. "I'll have another scotch. And so will you." She complied, pouring another two glasses. "Tell me more, love."

Caroline laughed. "You just want to hear about yourself," she took another sip from her glass and pretended to study his face. "Let me see. You're lonely, and the only company you can manage to wrangle is through lies and manipulation. Only child, or estranged from whatever siblings you might have. Very violent temper tantrums, especially when _poor Klausy-kins doesn't get his way,"_ she stuck out her bottom lip to mock him.

Klaus looked livid, his eyes darkening menacingly in the harsh glow of the neon Budweiser sign behind the bar. "Very good," he seethed out between clenched teeth. "Your sheriff mother teach you how to do that? Before I snapped her neck, I assume."

"That's _enough_," she spat.

"Why? Because precious Caroline Forbes can't handle what she dishes out? Why don't I get a chance to take a poke at your insecurities which so obviously stem from daddy issues?" Klaus shouted, drawing the attention of the other barflies.

Caroline saw this as the perfect opportunity to get him away from the people he'd threatened to kill. She grabbed her purse. "That's it, I'm done here," she announced, before storming out of the bar. She didn't even need to glance backwards to know that he was following her. Though part of her wanted to believe that she was in control of the situation, she was wary of how far she could take this.

The mugginess hadn't diminished at all, and Caroline could already feel herself starting to sweat. An abandoned lot across the street from the bar was where she stomped off to, trying to lead them away from prying eyes or eavesdroppers. It would only be a matter of time before Ernie or one of the other regulars went and got Tyler to tell him that his bartender had stormed out with some British guy.

"What's wrong, love? The truth stings, doesn't it?" Klaus called after her, only a second before she whirled around and punched him hard in the jaw.

"Ow, jesus fuck-," she swore, shaking her fist. It obviously hadn't hurt him, but punching him made her feel better.

"Would it make you feel better if I apologized for killing your parents?" he jeered. Caroline could tell he was enjoying making her uncomfortable. And that just pissed her off.

"I don't care about my parents!" she cried, throwing her hands up in frustration. She hadn't meant to say it, but now that she had, she realized it was true. "What you think you took from me… I never really had it in the first place. Before my mom lost most of her ability to walk, she'd be off either hunting or on the job. When she and my dad were together, they'd be gone for weeks at a time on hunts. Mom was distant, until her Parkinson's took most of her basic motor functions. I had to watch over her since I was fourteen. But when I was alone with my dad… I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

"He molested you," Klaus said.

"No," she shook her head, "he wasn't _that _kind of a monster. But he'd make me hold things like hot dishes to 'condition me against pain'. As if inflicting it over and over would make it go away. I didn't understand that he was trying to prepare me to hunt vampires, but what he did to me was just a hair short of torture. I was afraid of the dark, but I tried keeping it from him as long as I could. When he found out, he locked me into closets until I stopped screaming for him to let me out. So yes, I have daddy issues."

The way Klaus looked at her made her feel sick. "Caroline-," he started.

"Don't you fucking pity me," she spat, her throat raw from the alcohol. "I've had enough of that. After you killed my parents, I hated myself because I was _relieved._ You took away my father, who believed that every basic human reaction could be conditioned away, and my mother, who was dying right in front of me. For the first time in my life, I was free. I have you to thank for that."

Klaus waited a moment, allowing her to calm down before saying: "You still haven't answered my questions."

"I've told you enough for one night, Klaus," she ground out, her voice hard. "I've told you enough for a fucking century."

Klaus was about to say something before his cellphone rang. Caroline refrained from laughing; the ridiculousness of the supposedly ancient vampire having a cellphone was not lost on her. "_What, _Bekah?" he hissed into the receiver. He glanced at Caroline as he waited for an answer. "I'm rather busy at the moment... What do you mean 'there's a pack on the way'?" he made a frustrated noise. "I'll be there in a minute." He hung up.

Klaus' eyes trailed up and down her body, raking over her like a dog would regard a piece of meat. "Another time, love," he promised, his voice in a low growl.

"Fuck you," Caroline spat, but in the next second, he was gone.

"Caroline!" Tyler called, jogging out towards her. One of the patrons had finally gotten his attention about the stranger and his Caroline.

Tears welled up in her eyes. She hated to cry, especially in front of someone else. It always messed up her mascara and made her throat raw. Plus it totally messed with her badass façade. But the weight of everything she'd said to Klaus came crashing down, and the floodgates broke.

"_Tyler_," she sighed in relief as she hugged him. He was warm and sweaty, but soft and comfortable. It broke her heart to see him look at her the way that he did, but she just needed some familiarity. She was glad to see him unharmed, despite Klaus' threat to kill everyone at the bar.

"What's wrong? Who was that man the guys saw talking to you?" Tyler asked, concern filling his gaze.

Caroline forced a smile. "We need to talk about you letting me bring my gun to the bar. You know how it is. These out-of-towners just don't like taking no for an answer, you know?" She shakily wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"There's no need for that. I can protect you."

Her laugh was genuine. "'Men folk aren't always around to protect the women folk'," she quoted Buffy's friend, Cordelia.

"It's okay to ask for help, every once in a while," he protested.

_People who say that to me usually end up getting hurt_, she thought to herself, but didn't say anything.

**Yes, I will be quoting a lot of Joss Whedon characters, mostly because I'm a total nerd and Whedon is my god. **


	6. 365 Days

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry for the long wait, but band camp took up all of my time the last week and a half. **

"I don't see why you and Bonnie aren't see why you and Bonnie aren''t doing this," Elena grumbled, adjusting her knee-high fishnet stocking for the umpteenth time, causing Damon to become uncomfortable. At least he had the good grace to blush.

They'd gathered in the first floor of HQ, like they always did before a mission. All seven of them had been involved in the planning process, but the way Elena griped, you'd think she hadn't been consulted.

Caroline sighed. "You and Katherine are possibly the hottest twins in the world, you've both had experience in waitressing, and you two can pull off the misogynist metaphor that is that _ridiculous _uniform." She and Bonnie laughed as Elena looked like the most miserable human being on the planet.

Katherine, on the other hand, was pleased as punch to wear whatever she liked. She was more of a sexual creature: comfortable in her own skin and unbelievably resourceful when it came to hiding her weapons somewhere on her person. Both of them wore corseted satin 'tops' (honestly, it was more like lingerie), and six inch long skirts. Knee high leather boots had been pulled on over fishnet stockings. Kat's long hair hung in long, dark ringlets over her shoulders, whilst Elena's hair had been twisted up into a simple bun.

"Seriously, Elena, Eliza Jane asked us for her help at her club to weed out any possible vamps feeding on her dancers," Bonnie said. "We couldn't do a frontal assault without getting a lot of civilians killed. Undercover was the only option, and you know that."

Elena rolled her eyes. "I don't like to sound like a bad feminist, but this uniform is totally slutty. I'm chafing in places that shouldn't chafe underneath this _stupid _corset, and my ankles are killing me in these boots."

"But you look totally badass," Damon blurted. Over the last couple of weeks, his feelings for her had become less and less subtle by way of showing.

Stefan snorted and put his arm around Katherine's waist. "I'm glad you're enjoying this, at least," he murmured in his girlfriend's ear.

Katherine smiled. "Elena, wear your outfit like a suit of armor. What society deems slutty is what we should see as powerful."

"My warrior goddess," Stefan murmured, tenderly kissing the top of her hair. For some reason, Caroline felt as if she were intruding upon something intimate, something not meant for another's eyes. What Stefan and Katherine had was evident, yet completely unfathomable to her. She averted her eyes from them, only to meet Alaric's understanding gaze.

"Well," Bonnie said, clapping her hands together. "Let's get this show on the road!" Everyone murmured in agreement before grabbing their gear and walking out towards Alaric's van.

The plan was to drop Elena and Katherine off at six o'clock, the beginning of the shift at Eliza Jane's burlesque club. Eliza Jane hired them as subcontractors after some of her girls were showing signs of being fed on and compelled. Damon and Stefan would pose as customers, and Caroline would hang out backstage to keep an eye on the performers. Alaric and Bonnie would maintain surveillance by having been allowed into the security feeds.

Of course, nothing ever went according to plan.

Eliza Jane's was a burlesque club far enough away from the touristy shit to retain some of that natural New Orleans charm, but still in range to keep a large customer base. Both women and men frequented the club, either to enjoy some of the best professional reed players in five parishes, or to get a glimpse of the scantily clad dancers and their illustriously over-the-top menagerie.

The club was like something out of a movie: with a wooden stage jutting out from a gigantic alcove, with beaded curtains waterfalling down from the ceiling in frilly cascades of velvet. Off to the side was a smaller stage for the brass and sax players to sit, whilst the piano sat in front of the stage. Dotted around the floor were tables covered with the same kind of stained velvet the stage curtains were made of. To the right of everything was a bar, not unlike the one Caroline had to get out of tending to for tonight's mission.

Most of the people in the club were obviously human, falling over each other like discombobulated toddlers with no mothers around to keep them still and silent. Elena and Katherine strolled from table to table serving drinks, Caroline made sure the performers backstage were happy, and the Salvatores were lounging around like happy customers. All of them were armed in one form or another.

A low, brassy note sang over the sauced crowd from one of the trombones. The curtain rose, the pulleys groaning audibly under the weight of the ancient velvet. Dancers filed out from backstage, tits bouncing amiably, stilettos clipping sharply on the wood, eyes leveled over the crowd. From the view of the average club-goer, those were brainless, spineless bimboes that were only a peg higher than hookers on the proverbial ladder of morality. Those women knew _exactly _who they were, and with that knowledge came power.

As the dancers began their carefully choreographed routine, the team's eyes searched for any signs of vampire activity. There were VIP booths in darkened alcoves along the two walls opposite the stage and bar, occupied by the odd group of party girls and their chauvinist 'player' boyfriend paying the bill.

The lights were dimmed so the house lights wouldn't have much contention. This made Katherine and Elena especially jumpy as they skirted past college students and soccer moms alike, serving drinks and keeping their eyes peeled. Hands roamed over flat torsos to tiptoe beneath the tabletops. Heads tilted back in laughter as cheeks were set afire by the risqué nature of what they were watching. The crowd laughed and clapped as the dancers became more suggestive, even venturing to the farthest reaches of the stage to make eye contact with someone in the throng.

Caroline was beginning to get bored backstage, having to just make sure that the dancers got on stage on time. The dancers, having done the same damn routine a million times, had no need for her. After the first half an hour, she took to wandering around backstage. Most of backstage was dominated by lighting switches and old fashioned rope-and-pulleys. Decrepit hallways led to dressing rooms and powder rooms. Shoes and skirts alike were strewn around the place, torn off in haste during wardrobe changes in between sets.

Even amongst all the lights, the music, and the dancers, Caroline felt as alone as ever. She swallowed a lump in her throat, wishing something would happen that would yank her out of her loneliness. Vampire hunting was usually exciting and filled her with a fire that kept her going, but lately it wore on her. Perhaps it was the danger that always attracted her, kept her alive and set her free. But lately, the danger of vampire hunting was nothing compared to… _him._

Klaus occupied nearly every thought of hers. He _was _ancient. All the records she could scrounge up of him described him as vicious, ruthless in every regard. The farthest back she could reach was the thirteenth century, when he was tearing through parts of the Mongolian empire, but she doubted that he had started there.

Half of her dreaded their next meeting, and another half couldn't wait for it. He challenged her in ways she'd never been tested. She found him both terrifying and exhilarating. He'd killed her parents, one monster and the other an invalid, neither justifying nor condemning him in her eyes. Klaus was a monster, through and through.

She didn't hate him.

Klaus was an enigma, to be sure, like a puzzle that couldn't be solved without the man himself there to piece everything together. He was just so goddamn frustrating. Not to mention absolutely psychotic. She only needed to talk to him once just to get an insight into just how out of his mind he was.

Some small part of her wished that he would show up here tonight, so that she could ask him every question that had been gnawing at her since they met: _How old are you? Where were you born? What is an Original Hybrid? _Someone as old as he was must have some inkling about the meaning of life.

Just as her mind was about to wander off on another tangent, Bonnie's voice cut through the haze into her earpiece. "_Care, we've got an unidentified male walking into the back entrance by the dressing rooms. How many girls are back there?" _

Caroline sighed. "Enough that I'll need backup to protect. Send me Stefan and Elena," she responded.

"_Copy that." _Caroline broke into a run and sprinted towards the dressing rooms, careful to remain quiet as she got out her brass knuckles. She opted out of using her gun, because the dressing rooms were an enclosed space with too many innocents in the line of fire. There were only two dressing rooms, with room enough for a dozen girls each to get ready. The rooms were across from each other in the hallway, but there was no way of knowing which room the male went into.

She opted with the room on the left, barging into the room without asking if everyone was decent, which of course they weren't. There was no one other than three of the dancers touching up their makeup for the next set. Caroline didn't have time to apologize before running to the other dressing room. The door was locked, most likely with a deadbolt. She tried ramming it with her shoulder, but the door refused to budge.

Just then, Stefan and Elena arrived. Without even needing prompting, Elena stood between them and used their shoulders as leverage so she could kick in the door with both feet. Caroline and Stefan rushed in, his gun drawn and Caroline's fists at the ready. Elena held up the rear with her blades in both hands.

The man was most certainly vampire, his dark face morphing as the veins under his eyes undulated in his skin. The harsh fluorescent lights gleamed off of his elongated canines as he grinned menacingly at them. Six dancers were frozen in fear, pinned up against the walls as they regarded the hunters and their prey.

The vamp laughed and put his hands up in the air. "Alright, alright, you got me." His voice was deep, smooth, and dangerous. "I didn't come here to eat, I came here to talk."

Stefan leveled the vamp in his sights. "Have you been killing Eliza Jane's dancers?"

He shrugged. "Merely to draw your attention. They were no more than collateral damage. No offense, ladies," he announced to the dancers. "You may leave now." The girls didn't have to be told twice, scurrying around the three hunters. "I understand that you and your crew are the best hunters south of Missouri. The trouble is, it's impossible to get in contact with any of you or even find you if you're a vampire. I suspect that's the product of one of your witchy friends, no?"

Caroline eyed him warily. "Why do you need to talk to us?"

"We have a mutual enemy. I believe you're familiar with the Original Hybrid," the vampire smiled knowingly.

"_Klaus," _she hissed.

"He's been circling you, hasn't he? Why don't we put the weapons down and have ourselves a little chat? It's not like they'll do any good against me. I've built up a tolerance to vervain, so those brass knuckles of yours won't do me much harm," the vamp's eyes flicked down to Caroline's weapon of choice.

She sighed. "We're not lowering our weapons. But we can still talk." They all drew up chairs from the make-up booths, but Stefan kept his gun squarely aimed at the vamp's heart. Elena's knives were still clenched in her fists, but she rested her hands on her thighs.

"We're not seriously going to negotiate with this guy, are we?" Stefan whispered. "He's killed three girls in the last two weeks. And those are the only ones we know about."

"He's stronger than we are, and he's out to get Klaus. He's just about the only way that we'll ever get close to that bastard," Caroline replied, before raising her voice to normal conversation volume. "Who are you? And what's your connection to Klaus?"

The vampire's eyes traced Elena's face. "You look familiar, my dear. Like a ghost. What's your surname?"

Elena narrowed her almond-shaped eyes at him. "I'm not telling you shit. Answer her questions, or my glowering man-friend here will start shooting." Her voice, normally so sweet and soft, had darkened into the same rough tone that Katherine used when dealing with scumbags.

He smiled at Caroline. "My name is Marcel. Niklaus Mikaelson is my sire and mentor. I'm lucky, because the Original Hybrid isn't really known for keeping his minions alive for as long as I've been allowed to live."

Caroline remembered Klaus mentioning Marcel as his old associate. "What is he, really?"

Marcel raised an eyebrow. "Other than a raging narcissistic psychopath? He was the first vampire ever turned, around a thousand years old. Almost one hundred years ago, he broke the curse suppressing his werewolf side, and became the only hybrid to walk this earth." He glanced again at Elena before looking straight down the barrel of Stefan's gun. "You mind lowering that thing? We might be here for a while, and I'd hate for your arms to get tired." Stefan refused to budge.

"Why do you want him dead?" Caroline asked.

"He thinks that after abandoning this town for a century, he can come in, steal money from my factories, and call himself 'the king' in _my _goddamn town," Marcel leaned forward, his elbows resting in his knees. "I built this town from the ground up. I introduced culture, created commerce, and influenced trade on the Mississippi to come to the port. I've rebuilt this place after every riot, epidemic, and hurricane. I gave freedom to the enslaved, so I'll be damned if I let someone else come in to try to take my crown."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Are you seriously asking us to help you win some testosterone fueled pissing contest? We don't take sides with factions of your kind, we _kill _them."

Marcel's eyes darkened. "Sometimes you have to decide between the lesser of two evils, kiddo. There's me, the King of New Orleans, and then there's the Original Hybrid that slaughters entire nations for shits and giggles."

Caroline chewed her lip before asking. "So if Klaus is Caesar, does that make you Brutus?"

Marcel smiled. "Brutus and Caesar were still friends until the moment Brutus stuck a knife in him. I'm better compared to Cassius than anyone else."

"_'_The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars'," Stefan murmured.

"'But in ourselves, that we are underlings'," the vampire finished, before turning to Caroline. "Are you willing to let yourself fall prey to Klaus, or are you ready to be a master of your fate? I can offer you muscle, information, and funding."

"Why don't you kill him yourself?" Elena asked. "If you're so strong and powerful, why not eliminate him?"

Caroline noticed the shift in Marcel's demeanor and knew exactly what was going on. "You don't know how to kill him, do you? You're afraid that he is immortal in the truest sense of the word, and that if you go after him, he'll just get angrier."

"You assume a lot about people, don't you?" Marcel glared at her. "Why is Niklaus so interested in you? I can smell him on your brass knuckles and on your boots. He's let you hit him. What is so special about you, hmm? Special little fucking snowflake if I ever saw one."

"Okay, we're done here," Stefan drawled. "You have until the count of three before I shoot that smirk off of your pretty face." His finger twitched on the trigger. "One," the vampire remained still, trying to see if Stefan was bluffing. "Two," Marcel then looked to Caroline and Elena to see if their eyes held a tell. "Three," true to his word, Stefan squeezed the trigger.

By the time the bullet sank into the upholstery of the chair he'd been sitting in, Marcel was gone. The gunshot couldn't have been heard over the music in the main show room, but it was definitely picked up over the comm.

"_Did you get him?" _Bonnie asked in everyone's ear.

Elena sighed and pressed a finger to her earpiece. "That would be a no, Bon. But we got something else that I think might interest you."

**Again, so sorry for the long wait! Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!**


	7. Jordan River

**AN: Thank you all so much for your reviews. LOVE YOU. Anywhodeleedo, Caroline's now faced with a choice: join Marcel's crusade to kill the immortal hybrid, just do it herself, or (and she doesn't want to admit it) let Klaus live. **

Caroline and Elena were grateful to the have the night off from hunting. Caroline had just gotten back from her shift at Lockwood's, and Elena's cellular anatomy class had just gotten over with, so they just decided to hang out at Elena's dorm room. The twins were fortunate enough to have separate rooms, so that Katherine and Stefan could have their privacy.

The rest of the vampire hunting crew was out, following up on some information that a couple of vamps were planning on hitting the blood bank at River Oaks Hospital. While Caroline and Elena were both essential parts of the team, both couldn't get out of their prior commitments, so the crew was forced to just go without them.

Caroline plopped down onto Elena's futon next to her friend, heels hanging over the edge as she leaned back on the wall behind her, and took a sip from the bottle of Dewar's that Elena kept under lock and key.

"So… Damon asked me out on a date today," Elena blurted, knowing the blonde's history with the handsome devil. Caroline pulled a face and drank another gulp of the scotch, gritting her teeth as the alcohol burned a trail down her throat. "You're not going to ask me what I said?" Elena asked, picking nervously at the frayed edges of her blanket.

"I already know what you said. I can tell from the way you're looking at me," Caroline sighed, handing the brunette the bottle.

"Are you mad?"

"Livid. But I can't say I blame you for wanting to take a chance with him."

"He's changed, I wouldn't have said 'yes' if I didn't see that," Elena looked relieved that the blonde wasn't angry with her.

Caroline looked at Elena, her eyes boring into her childhood friend's. "I know. He loves you. He always has. He would die before he hurt you."

"You still haven't forgiven him, have you?" Elena asked, dreading her answer.

"No."

"Will you ever?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Look, if you're looking for my blessing, then you'll be disappointed. Damon is cruel and manipulative. The only two people he's halfway decent to are you and Stefan, and that's only because he loves you two."

Elena shook her head. "That's not true. He's abrasive, sure, but on the inside he's caring and gentle. He'd die for any of us." Caroline refrained from rolling her eyes. "He was awful to you, yeah, but who isn't absolutely horrible in high school?"

"Not everyone is abusive in high school, Elena. He never hit me, not once, but he treated me like I was lower than dirt, like I wasn't worthy of being around him. He manipulated me into having sex with him, and got me drunk on multiple occasions, but you already knew all of that. And despite every terrible thing he's done, you still agreed to go out with him," Caroline snapped, suddenly very irritated with her friend. She couldn't understand how, after everything, Elena forgave Damon.

Elena's eyes filled with tears as she said quietly, "I love him, Caroline."

Caroline's heart sank. "Jesus, Elena… I shouldn't be taking this out on you. He loves you," she took her friend's hand, "and I have no right to judge you for loving him. You're right, I haven't forgiven him for what he did to me in high school. Maybe I will someday, but today isn't that day."

"You forgave Klaus," Elena mumbled under her breath, nearly indecipherable.

"_Excuse me?" _The blonde's eyes flashed dangerously, no longer feeling sorry for hurting her friend. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"He killed your parents," Elena cried, throwing up her hands by means of surrender, "but you still talk to him. I mean, did you even _try _to kill him the last time you saw him?"

Caroline sprang up from the futon. "How am I suddenly the bad guy? I give you my honest opinion, and you turn it around on me. I shouldn't have to forgive Damon just because you want me to, just as I should hold a grudge against Klaus because he killed my torturer and my invalid mother."

"You just don't like Damon because he hasn't apologized," Elena spat, slamming the bottle of Dewar's onto her bedside table. "It kills you, because every second he spent with you in high school, he wished he was with me. And you justify your jealousy by reminding yourself how he treated you like trash."

"He was a monster," Caroline spat.

"Exactly! He _was _a monster. Damon has changed, he's seen that what he did was wrong," Elena was desperate, trying to get her best friend to bless her love for Damon.

"He'll chew you up and spit you back out, Elena. He'll consume you. He'll love you until there isn't anything left of you for him to love. That's what men like Damon do, and I can't let that happen to you."

Elena clenched her jaw, tears that just moments before were running down her cheeks were drying. "You've changed since high school, too, Caroline. You're cold and distant. You're hanging out with Klaus now-,"

"We talked once without trying to kill each other, and you call that '_hanging out_'?" Caroline interrupted. "I'm trying to understand why you can love Damon, I really am, but it's really hard to be understanding when my best friend is throwing this _bullshit _in my face. Jesus fucking Christ, I can't _believe-,"_

"Shut up Caroline," Elena said suddenly, her eyes going wide. aid, her eyes wide.

"What the hell is your-,"

"Be _quiet, _I hear something," Elena snapped, and suddenly everything was forgotten about their argument. Caroline reached for her gun in her waistband as she, too, heard something rustling outside of Elena's window.

"Elena," Caroline whispered. "Did you ever test whether or not vampires can get into dorm rooms?"

"They're the school's property, not mine," Elena whispered back, a stake clenched tightly in her grasp. Caroline didn't know which entrance to defend: the dorm room door, which led into the hallway, or the window, which was about three feet off of the ground outside.

They waited in silence for a moment, holding their breaths and keeping still, as if whatever they were about to face couldn't hear their hearts thundering wildly in their chests. Caroline and Elena had the sudden urge to apologize to each other, because they might not get another chance. Another moment passed, like a bullet train racing through the still countryside. A bead of sweat trickled down the blonde's face, and Elena's eyelashes fluttered.

The windows just about exploded, with glass flying in all different directions, scattering and fleeing into the room. Elena and Caroline barely had time to shield their faces from the fragments, obstructing their defenses. Flashes of fang and black eyes zoomed around in blurs, faster than either of them could aim, faster than either of them could even process.

Caroline heard the chillingly familiar, "Hello, love," before everything went black.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Wake up darling, I didn't hit you _that _hard," Klaus' condescending tone mocked her through a red haze of pain. Her eyelids felt like lead weights, and opening them was a struggle. A dull throbbing emanated from the base of her skull, reverberating in painful ripples throughout her body.

Speech wasn't something she'd ever really struggled with until now. "Kl…ows," she grunted, fighting to straighten out her vision. Three Klauses stood before her now, peering down at her with a mischievous leer that made her feel uneasy. His hands were clasped behind his back, and she realized that he was standing over her.

"Right you are, love. I'm so glad that you were able to join us in the land of the living this evening. _I was afraid I might have to feed you my blood_," he whispered, as if it were a secret between them.

"Gah," Caroline growled again, squinting against the harsh light of the fluorescent tracks on the ceiling. She was sitting in a chair, her arms contorted uncomfortably in the straps, with her ankles secured to the legs of her chair. "Elena," she managed to get out, "where… is… Elena?" Then she saw her friend lying hog-tied next to her, completely unconscious.

"Welcome to my red room of pain, Caroline," Klaus announced perkily, nudging the prone Elena with the tip of his shoe as he stepped behind Caroline.

"But the walls are white," she said, her pain-induced stupor slowing her down.

Klaus made a noise of frustration, "I obviously, as my minion so eloquently put it, 'konked you a little too hard on the noggin'. You've been unconscious for hours. And you're just a hair above useless in the state you're in."

"What about Elena? Is she…?"

"Dead? No, I just gave her a little sedative so she wouldn't make too much of a fuss. Doppelgängers do like to be dramatic, you know." Caroline's head lolled a little as her eyelids fluttered again, trying hard to stay awake. Every time he spoke, his voice would ring and bang around in her ears for a little while. Klaus grabbed Caroline's chin. "Oi, don't go back to sleep again," he growled, his face inches from hers.

"You just… you stay away from me," she growled groggily, "don't fucking touch me." She mustered all of her strength to glare at him through heavy eyelids. His eyes bored into hers, before his gaze trailed down her face to her lips. "Don't even think about it," she hissed, knowing exactly what was on his mind. Klaus blinked and backed up before resuming his trademark leer.

"Now that you're properly awake, I'd like to ask you some questions," Klaus folded his hands in front of him.

Caroline grinned sleepily up at him, "And if I don't cooperate? Are you going to torture it out of me?"

Klaus' smile was haunting. "You'd like that wouldn't you? You see, I know that you are no stranger to pain. But I also know that you're _very _protective of the doppelgänger. If you don't want to answer my questions, then I start tearing apart your friend here." They both glanced down at the sedated Elena before locking eyes again.

"What do you want to know?" Caroline sighed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Damon and Alaric stumbled into HQ after waiting for hours in the van in front of the blood bank without any vamps showing up. Frustration was tangible between the members of the group, with Stefan and Katherine speeding away after four hours without a single vampire. Bonnie went home two hours after that.

"Have you gotten ahold of Elena and Caroline yet?" Alaric asked Damon as his friend staggered exhaustedly up the stairs in front of him.

"I've tried them both," Damon replied, "but no answer. Maybe they're asleep."

"Yeah, maybe," Alaric trailed off. "So what did Elena say?"

"What? I told you neither of them answered."

Alaric rolled his eyes. "I know you asked her out today. What did she say?"

"What do think she said?"

"I know she's in love with you," he deadpanned, causing Damon to whirl around in astonishment. "I think that's the only time I've ever seen that look on your face, Damon," Alaric chuckled.

"I just asked her out for coffee," Damon sputtered.

"Oh please, it's not like you're not over the moon for her, either. What the hell is wrong? I thought you'd be happy about this," Alaric was confused about his friend's sudden anxiousness.

"I didn't think she'd ever love me, Ric. Jesus, what if I fuck it up? I don't want to hurt her, not like…," he trailed off, his dark eyes glazing over as thoughts raced through his mind.

"Like you hurt Caroline," Ric finished. "You're different, man. You were a horrible little shit in high school, yeah. I probably would've kicked your fucking face in if I knew you then. You're a good man, Damon."

"Caroline hasn't forgiven me," Damon muttered quietly.

"She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to. 'To forgive is an act of compassion. It's not done because people deserve it, it's because they need it.' Caroline will forgive you on her own time, but don't let your past affect your future with Elena. You love her and she loves you," Alaric clapped his friend on the shoulder. "What more could you want?"

Damon smiled. "Yeah, I guess so. I just hope that we can be together without me doing something to screw it up."

Alaric's phone rumbled in his back pocket. "Hello? Josey, I don't know where you got your intel from, but it was way off base." He paused, as the informant shouted into the receiver on the other end. "What do you mean you don't remember calling me? Alright, alright, I'll get you some vervain. Yeah. I'll talk to you later." He ended the call.

"What was that about?"

"Josey doesn't remember calling me earlier today. She was compelled. Which means that someone really wanted us there at the blood bank tonight," Alaric sighed.

"I don't think it was about us being at the blood bank so much as Caroline and Elena…," Damon trailed off, horrified with his own revelation.

"The mission was a diversion," his friend finished, before dialing the rest of the gang's numbers.

**I know there are some confusing 'holes' in the story, but they're completely intentional (that doesn't mean that they don't bug me any less). **

**The new cover photo is a 1978 Zdzisław Beksiński painting, part of his 'Beautiful Nightmares' collection. I'm not usually into art, but I totally love his stuff. If you guys have any recommendations for cover photos, let me know. **


	8. Peace in the Valley

**AN: *Squeals* I love you guys. Seriously, I cannot thank you enough. I'd just like to remind y'all: I have not posted any warnings of major character death, so that means that no major characters will die in this fic (*wink wink). **

"I have it on great authority that my former associate paid you a visit," Klaus intoned, pacing in front of Caroline, the harsh fluorescents highlighting the hollows under his eyes. The room itself was like a military bunker with white plaster chipping slowly away to reveal the concrete walls underneath. The rise and fall of the unconscious Elena's chest gave her some semblance of comfort.

"Marcel?" Caroline hated giving him what he wanted, but she refused to let him lay a hand on Elena. "He wanted to know why you were circling me. Told me that you were a vulture and I was your prey." She looked up at him. "Are you going to kill me?"

His brow furrowed. "Wasn't really on my 'to do' list, love. Did you want me to kill you?"

She smiled weakly, humorlessly. "Wouldn't really matter anyway."

His eyes traced her face to look for cracks in her barriers. "And why would that be?"

"I'm dying. Well, I'm degenerating. The same thing that made Liz Forbes so easy to kill is hiding in my nervous system, just waiting for me to turn thirty," Caroline's eyes refused to meet his, and instead remained fixed on the tops of his shoes. "Parkinson's."

"I'm sorry," Klaus murmured, and this time Caroline did look up at him.

"No, you're not," she growled.

He shrugged. "Would it make you feel better if I said that I was?"

"Only marginally."

"What did Marcel want from you?"

She smirked. "Always back to business with you, isn't it? Marcel wanted me to join in his crusade. He's terrified of you, in case you weren't aware."

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "And why does he want your help?"

"Because he thinks I can get close to you. He thinks I know how to kill the Hybrid."

"And do you?"

"No," she sighed.

"Would you want to, though? Kill me?"

She made a face. "You're threatening to torture my best friend in front of me, only after you kidnapped us from her dorm room."

"But if I hadn't done that, then?" Klaus tilted his head to the side.

Caroline pursed her lips. "I guess we'll never know, will we?" Klaus stood in front of her in silence for another moment, regarding her as a scientist would regard bacteria in a petri dish. She felt exposed under his gaze, as if every mask she'd perfected over the years had been discarded.

"Why couldn't I follow you for any long period of time? Why is it that I can't find where you live, even though I've seen your address a million times?"

"We have a witch on our side," she said smugly. "She's damn good, too. She set up wards around our headquarters so that no vampire could ever find it without knowing where it was. We should have gotten something like that for Elena's dorm room, obviously, but we'll fix that once we get back."

"How many people are in your operation? A dozen? A hundred?"

She laughed. "Seven, Klaus."

"What? But you took down one of my factories in twenty minutes. There can't just be seven of you," Klaus demanded, flabberghasted.

"Maybe your security sucks," she offered, a sly smile creeping onto her face.

"Does Marcel know that you have a witch on your side?" His eyes remained fixed upon her face to search for any signs of lies.

She rolled her eyes. "And it's back to Marcel."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Klaus asked defensively.

"It's just that you've been steering the conversation back to Marcel as if you wanted me to talk shit about him. That's the same way I acted with my friends after I broke up with someone… _Ohmygod_," Caroline burst into giggles, a sight so out of place as she rocked in her restraints. Klaus had to fight to smile at the sound of her pealing laughter, and forced a scowl. "You dated _Marcel? _Was this before or after you sired him?"

"We were only together for a couple of months," he sputtered, "It's not _funny_."

"Oh please," she laughed, "It's hilarious. You're checking up on him, aren't you?"

"Our relationship was not a _joke_," Klaus made a noise of frustration. "Why don't you seem surprised?"

"I guessed by the way that Marcel talked about you," she shook her head. "He sounds like a bitter ex. I'm guessing you're the one who broke it off?"

"Neither of us was really ready for a relationship and I decided that it would just be best… but that was a hundred years ago and this really isn't something I should be telling _you_," he trailed off, his posture defensive.

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

He raised his eyebrows. "That's not important."

"So you _do _still have feelings for him."

"No, I-,"

"Why are you so shifty about this?"

"I happen to have my eye on someone else," Klaus blurted, causing both of them to be uncomfortable. Caroline shifted in her seat and suddenly, with a guilty pang, she remembered that Elena was still there, bound and unconscious. Her friend seemed peaceful and unharmed, and Klaus wasn't acting like he was planning on hurting either of them. There was still that protective instinct that screamed at her to get Elena out of there.

That instinct didn't seem to care about whether or not she would get hurt trying to get Elena to safety.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"I just got off the phone with the campus security," Stefan announced, walking into the HQ's upstairs dining room turned office space. The gang had gathered, bleary-eyed, around their laptops and cellphones trying to track the whereabouts of their missing friends. "They're sending over the tapes from last night from the dorms." He hopped onto his laptop and pulled up the sent over media files. He then distributed several hours of tape to the other computers so that they all could pitch in.

Almost twenty minutes passed before Alaric announced: "I have Elena coming back from class at around eleven. She seems fine."

Another half an hour crawled on before Bonnie said: "I've got Caroline coming into the dorms at one-thirty. She's talking on her cellphone… Damon can you pull up her cellphone records and see who she was talking to?"

Damon nodded and squinted at the screen. "At around one-twenty-seven she made a call to Elena, probably to let her know that she was almost to Elena's dorm."

Katherine spoke up, eyes darting from point to point on her computer. "We've got a delivery van pulling up on the street outside of the dorm at around two o'clock. The van stops and the rear doors open, but there's nothing but a flash of movement to indicate anyone actually gets out of the van."

"Vampires, then," Damon sighs.

"Just a minute and twenty-two seconds later, there's another flash of movement, and then the doors on the van close again," Katherine rewound the tape again and again before slowing it down frame-by-frame. "I've got two figures with a person over a shoulder each. I can't see any faces, but I'd bet good money that the two people being carried are Caroline and Elena."

"Shit," Damon spat. "They could be anywhere. Fuck!" He slammed his hand on the table in frustration. "They could be dead by now." His eyes wandered everywhere but the eyes of his friends.

"We'll find them," Bonnie said. "We just need to find out who took them." They sat in silence, pondering for what seemed like ages.

"There are only two vampires that have both the resources and the reasons to take Caroline and Elena: Klaus or Marcel," Stefan mused. "But Marcel doesn't seem to be personally obsessed with either of them as much as Klaus seems to be fixated upon Caroline."

Alaric sighed, "But we wouldn't be able to just look him up in the phonebook."

Bonnie shook her head. "We wouldn't have to. There can't be many major property holders in the city with the first name 'Niklaus', which is obviously the long form of 'Klaus'. He's obviously wealthy, and someone as egotistical as he wouldn't want to use a fake name to hide."

"Let's get on it then," Katherine said. "I feel like bagging myself an Original Hybrid tonight."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Klaus had left after another hour of talking. Caroline's skull throbbed and ears rang, but other than that she was unharmed. She tried nudging Elena with her chair. "Elena? Elena, you've been out longer than you were after spring break two years ago. Get a move on."

Another ten minutes of prodding and yelling finally roused the bound Elena. The chloroform had obviously done a number on her, dulling her senses and slowing her reaction time. "Ca…roline?" she slurred, her eyelids droopy. "Wha-, what happened?" Her voice came out rough and guttural.

"Klaus got the drop on us through some stupid loophole in Bonnie's spell. We're in his red room of pain."

"But it's white."

"That's what I said."

"Are you okay?" Elena tugged at her restraints to no avail.

Caroline sighed. "I'm fine. Klaus hasn't laid a hand on me since he knocked me out."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "Have you two been talking this whole time?"

The blonde pursed her lips in annoyance. "He's been interrogating me."

"And you're just giving him everything? What the hell, Caroline? The rest of our friends could be in danger-,"

"He threatened to hurt you," Caroline protested quietly. "I wasn't going to test if he was bluffing or not."

"Oh," Elena didn't know exactly what to say to that, so she just wiggled herself into a seating position, something unbelievably difficult with both her hands and feet bound. Once she sat up, she scooted herself with her back up against the wall, only a foot from Caroline.

"I got more from him than he got from me," she offered. "The reason why Marcel's gunning for Klaus is because Klaus dumped him a hundred years ago."

Elena laughed. "Seriously? That's kinda hot to think about."

"_Elena_," she squeaked, giggling along with, "that's queer fetishization."

"Oh, please," Elena waved her bound hands dismissively, "straight men watch lesbians have sex all the time."

"Doesn't make it right."

"Doesn't make it not hot," the brunette waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Caroline couldn't help but laugh. The scene probably looked absolutely ridiculous to an outsider, what with them being prisoners and all, but they didn't seem to mind. Suddenly, the heavy steel door creaked open and a different man walked in. He was young, perhaps around Elena's age, with sandy-blond hair and pale green eyes. He was about five-foot-five and had average build. Both of the girls knew he was a vampire straight away.

"Where's Klaus?" Caroline demanded, not wanting to deal with someone she wasn't familiar with.

"Your boyfriend's out, sweetpea. Got people to eat, don't he?" he growled, a heavy southern drawl spilling out. "It's just us girls."

Caroline tensed. "Did he ask you to guard us?"

The vampire cocked his head. "You've gotten awful comfy with Klaus. But here's the thing: he ain't your friend. He's your rightful king, and you'd best remember that. The only reason the Hybrid even talks to you of your own free will is because you've got enough vervain in your system to kill us all."

"Or maybe he's just tired of talking to little bumpkins like you," she spat. In an instant, Caroline was knocked sideways, chair and all, to the floor. He'd slapped her, and she could already feel blood from her loosened teeth seep into her mouth. Her shoulder had taken the brunt of the impact, probably fracturing her scapula in the process.

"Caroline!" Elena cried, struggling against her ropes again. "You motherfucker. You better not have hurt her," she warned the vamp.

The vamp, having realized what he'd done, was livid. "You little bitch. You made me hit you."

Caroline, with her head resting on the cool cement, chuckled. "I didn't make you do anything, pal. And when Klaus comes back to see that you disobeyed him by playing with his toy, he's going to be _murderous_." The blonde's mind was racing of ways to be able to stall the vamp from hurting them long enough for Klaus to get back.

"I ain't gon' get killt over some stupid broad," the vamp hissed, picking her and her chair up from the floor and righting her. Blood dribbled out from Caroline's mouth, her shoulder jutted out at an awkward angle, and the left side of her face was already beginning to swell. "Aw shit," he cursed, "God fucking damn it, bitch look what you made me do."

Caroline smiled. "That's the thing will you vamps: you don't know your own strength. I know mine. I don't have to raise a finger to slay you. I just had to raise my voice."

The vampire regarded her for a moment before a smirk crept maniacally up his face. "I may not know what my limitations are, darlin', but I sure as hell know what I _can _do." His eyes went black, and veins shot out like roots on a tree underneath them. He bared his fangs and bit into his own wrist. Before Caroline could even realize what he was going to do, it was already being done.

She struggled against him, but he pinched her nose and forced her to swallow a couple mouthfuls of his filth. When he released her, she coughed and gagged while Elena was helpless but to watch. Caroline's face, the back of her head, and shoulder healed almost immediately, knitting back together like stitching on a complex quilt.

"You _fucking _piece of shit," Caroline screeched, tugging against her restraints. What the vampire failed to realize was that she'd been cutting the rope by rubbing the restraints against the sharp edge of her metal chair.

"Amos!" Someone yelled in the hallway to the vampire. "Amos, there's someone trying to break in through the west entrance. Go check it out" Amos, the vampire who'd been harassing them, looked nervous.

This was the distraction that Caroline needed. With one final yank, she was able to tear away both arm restraints. She dealt him a powerful blow to the groin, which bought her enough time to undo the knots on both of her ankles. Elena swept his feet out from under him from her place on the floor, so Caroline could steal the knife at his waist to cut away her friend's restraints. Just as she was about to slice the ankle ropes away, Amos yanked her backwards by her hair. Flailing wildly, she was able to twist around and stab him in the gut.

He released her, howling in pain, which gave her enough time to grab Elena (who had hastily undone her ropes) and run out of the room. They found themselves in a long hallway that had no discernible landmarks as to indicate where they were in the building. Just as Elena turned to ask Caroline which way they should go, she saw the hands of the bleeding Amos cup her chin and forehead from the back. With a savage yank, the vampire roared in victory.

It was with the snap of Caroline's neck and the sight of her lifeless body crumple to the floor did something inside of Elena break. She could hear herself screaming and felt the cries ripping themselves from her throat. Tears fell from her wide eyes as she regarded her friend's corpse with absolute shock. The firing of guns and the shouting of men became muffled, miles away. Caroline's killer had obviously fled the scene, but all she could focus on was Caroline's twisted form.

Her eyes were open, glazed and unseeing, and her neck was bent at an odd angle. "Caroline," Elena sobbed, "get up, honey. We gotta get out of here and I can't do this without you." She shook the corpses' arm, fingers clinging to her friend's still-warm flesh. "_No_," she squeaked, her voice cracking. "No, no, _no come on_. Get up. Get _up_. _Please…_ What am I gonna do? Oh, god, _what am I gonna do? _Care, come on." She grabbed ahold of Caroline's shoulders and shook her corpse, but to no avail. "_CAROLINE!_"

Elena's eyes found the bloody knife the blonde had wielded expertly in the spur-of-the-moment. The blood on the shiny blade was special, she remembered, but she couldn't remember why. All she knew was the blood of the monster that snapped her friend's neck was on that blade. Caroline had been so reckless, so brave. She'd taken the first opportunity to get Elena free without regard for her own safety. "I- I'm so sorry Caroline_. I'm so sorry_," she repeated it over and over as she cradled her friend.

The gunshots, which had begun just as they'd fled the room, became more prominent as Elena realized that they were about to be rescued. If Caroline had waited another three minutes to break them out, she would have been alive. Elena knew that when her friends managed to get to her, all they would see is that they were too late.

Sure enough, when her twin arrived into the hallway, all she found was Elena cradling Caroline's head in her arms and stroking her curls soothingly. "Elena, is she alright-," Katherine asked, pleading to whomever was listening that her friend was merely wounded, but as she approached she saw Caroline's lifeless eyes gazing up at the ceiling. A part of her wanted to join her sister next to their fallen comrade, but another part knew they had very little time to get out of here alive.

"Elena, we gotta go," Katherine shouted over the gunfire in the background. Another vamp peered around the corner, but was quickly silenced by a wooden bullet to the forehead from Katherine's pistol. She rushed forward and dragged Elena away, away from one of the only people she'd ever loved. Elena twisted in resistance in one arm, while Katherine laid down suppressive fire against another surge of vamps heading towards them. She held the screaming Elena tight to her, unwilling to let her sister die as well.

"No, we can't just leave her here. _Caroline! _Let me go, _we can still save her_," Elena screamed her arms still outstretched towards the blonde corpse she'd been mourning. Katherine was stronger in that moment, dragging her sister and keeping the approaching monsters at bay for the time being. After a few more moments, Elena seemed to snap out of it enough to run with her twin out of the building with the vamps hot on their heels.

Alaric's van was idling outside of the rear entrance, its doors wide open for the girls to make a speedy getaway. Once the twins had slid in, Stefan hesitated. "Where's Caroline?" Katherine shook her head and slammed the doors shut, after having thrown in the sobbing Elena. Alaric gunned it and radioed to Bonnie and Damon that it was time to go.

"_Did we get 'em?"_ Damon asked over the comm.

Alaric sighed and looked back to the crying sisters. "We lost Caroline," he croaked. "We lost her."


	9. Rosie

**AN: I know last chapter was like 'WTF' and believe me, I totally understand. *Flaps arms excitedly* Oooh I hope you guys like this next leg of the story. **

**Also, the title of the chapter 'Rosie' was a traditional work song sung by everyone from slaves to railroad workers during the 19****th**** and 20****th**** Centuries. There's a recording on Youtube from 1947, and was recorded by Alan Lomax at Mississippi State Penitentiary. **

**Trigger warning for an attempted rape scene and mentions of suicide.**

Waking up had always been a chore for Caroline: the tangled hair, the morning breath, and the nagging instinct to go back to sleep. But the way she awoke tonight made going back to sleep impossible. Light had never had a sound to it before now; it was thunder, crashing around her skull like the proverbial storm surges of torrential agony. Every breath she took was fire, scorching her lungs and leaving her just a little less alive than the moment before.

A familiar face hovered in her field of vision. Smug bastard had the nerve to look concerned for her. "Ssh, love, you're in transition," he hushed her. Caroline snarled and shoved him away from her.

"What have you done to me?" she screeched, clapping her hands over her ears as the sound of her voice reverberated off of the walls of the hallway where she'd been killed. "What have you done to me?" she repeated softly.

"I haven't done anything to you," Klaus snarled. "You got yourself into this situation by attacking your guard."

"_Excuse me?"_ Caroline staggered to her feet, "That asshole punched me so hard he broke my fucking jaw and got my shoulder dislocated when I hit the ground. Then he _forced _me to drink his fucking blood so I wouldn't be so banged up when you got back. I took his knife," she grabbed the knife in question off of the floor, Amos' blood dried on the blade, "and I set us free. He snapped my neck and ran away from my friends coming to the rescue."

"That's not what he told me," Klaus said, advancing upon Caroline to look into her eyes. "But you're not lying."

Klaus started to storm off to wherever Amos presumably was until she called after him. "Wait, Klaus," he turned, "How long do I have left?" she asked, her voice low.

"You have forever," he replied, confused, until he read her expression. "Are you that fucking stubborn? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm not becoming some fucking bloodsucker, Klaus," she cursed, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Klaus clenched his jaw shut and glared at her. "I'm going to attend to an insubordinate employee now, and during that time I want you to leave here."

Caroline shook her head. "I'm going to come with you and watch you rip the asshole who did this to me limb-from-limb."

"Fine," he growled, "but after that, I want you gone."

"Why?"

"Because there's no way in hell I'm going to watch you die. And I'm not helping you become something that could annoy me for the rest of eternity," he returned over his shoulder as he strode away. Caroline growled several expletives under her breath before deciding against following Klaus to her killer and decided to spend her last few hour as even part human away from the darkness that lingered over Klaus' nest.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Amos and several other vampires (sired by Klaus' brother, Kol) were hanging out on the ground floor of the warehouse, waiting out the day. Klaus' minions didn't have daylight rings to allow them to see the sun, so Klaus knew that they had nowhere to run. Amos looked as infuriatingly smug as ever, as if what he'd done to Caroline was nothing.

Klaus didn't feign a smile as he sauntered over to Amos. "Amos, mate, have I ever told you just how much I hate being lied to?" He hissed, his eyes going gold and his canines elongating. Faster than Amos could even begin to comprehend what was happening, Klaus had him by the throat. "_Do you even know what you've done?_" the hybrid snarled. "_You've given the person who hates vampires the most the power to destroy us all." _

Amos struggled against Klaus' grip as his fellow vampires stood by and watched. "She's just… a girl," he choked.

"A girl that's spent her entire life training and learning how to kill vampires. You idiot, she's going to kill us all," Klaus shook Amos.

"Not if she doesn't complete the transition," he protested. "She could die today, and we'd have nothing to fear."

"She should have lived a thousand more days, Amos," Klaus growled, "as a _human_. You healed her because you were afraid of what I would do if I saw her bruised. What did you think I would do when I found her lying dead in the hall? Hmm?"

"The bitch earned it," Amos squeaked, and that gave Klaus cause to rear his head back before savagely biting into the flesh of the younger vampire. He shoved the now bleeding man backwards onto the floor in front of his peers.

"I understand that because Kol is the one who sired you lot, it's difficult to take orders from someone else," Klaus stated calmly, his thirst sated. "But if you ever take matters into your own hands or change the definition of an order I've given you, you'll be given the same fate that I've given Amos: a slow, agonizing death." Amos gave a strangled cry as he tried to staunch his infected wound. "_Insubordination_, lovelies. Such a pretty word for an ugly crime, don't you think?"

Klaus skirted past his men without so much as a backward glance. Amos would be dead by Tuesday, a full day more than Caroline was going to have unless she completed the transition. For however long he'd been alive, he still had absolutely no grasp over his emotions, especially ones related to the blonde.

Part of him felt sorry for her: she was going to either die or become the one thing she hated the most. Of course, Caroline would probably wait until she was to the brink of death to finally succumb to her thirst. The image of her dying of starvation flashed through his mind, and it chilled him worse than he thought possible.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Crimson and gold arced over the horizon, reflecting off of the polished glass or the high rises to shine directly into Caroline's sensitive eyes. The sunset was harsher and more vibrant that it had ever been before, igniting an agony in her skull and causing her eyes to water. She kept her head down as she mingled in the streets. She'd been walking for at least six hours already, resisting any slip in concentration.

Perhaps it was because she wanted to remind herself that becoming a vampire would mean killing some of the people she passed on the side walk, or perhaps it was merely her hunger for fresh blood that drew her to a populated area. Either way, she was beginning to regret coming here. Heartbeats thundered like thousands of drums echoing through the streets. The scent of blood rose above the throng to intoxicate her, strangling her with a sickening hunger.

Being in transition was the crux of the ultimate temptation: every muscle, every instinct, indeed every fiber of her being was screaming for blood. Her body _wanted_ to be immersed in immortality, to be instilled with the strength of a hundred men. Every footstep was a chore: putting one foot in front of the other with the same deliberative motion that she wished to devote to ripping someone's throat out.

Such a hunger gripped her, suffocating her and consuming her with a need, a thirst, for an end to this. Sweat dripped down her face, making her blonde curls stick to her face and to the nape of her neck. Aches and pangs of pain sang as she continued to stagger onward.

Street carts advertising fresh Po' Boys and steamed craefish helped mask some of the smell of the people. Smoke from the cigar parlors wafted out from the upper levels down into the streets. Street performers, ranging from sax quartets to breakdancers, helped to distract her from the sounds of the heartbeats pounding on like the rhythm of street walkers.

The street lamps flickered on, their glows softer than the beating rays of the sun. In contrast, the neon signs were blinding, cutting her like knives as they seared 'OPEN' into her skull. Christmas lights were strung over railings and across the narrow lanes over the streets. The stars were blotted out by the light pollution, so the only things left in the night sky were the helicopters and the moon, which loomed over the city.

Caroline felt sick, her stomach twisting and churning with a foul hunger, a thirst for warm blood. Though the sun was no longer burning her, the heat from the day's light still hovered, smothering her. Sweat continued to pour down her face, soaking her shirt and making her jeans uncomfortable. Her ankles wobbled as each step of hers became more unsteady than the last. No one spared her anything more than a passing glance.

She'd been walking for another hour before she staggered into an alleyway and collapsed onto her hands and knees. Caroline was at least halfway through the day her transition allotted her. Her head pounded as her breath puffed in shallow gasps. The relative silence was soothing, and all those people that she craved were worlds away. Her hunger still refused to cease.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of shuffling and a muffled cry by the stairs. Caroline was hidden in the shadows as she spied upon a couple groping each other against the wall behind the apartment buildings. It only took her a moment to realize that the man was pinning the woman to the rough wall and the woman was putting up one hell of a fight against him. Caroline could tell that the woman was extremely intoxicated, however, and was losing strength.

Forgetting every pain or ounce of exhaustion, the vampire hunter pulled the attempted rapist off of the sobbing woman, only to be punched square in her jaw. Caroline staggered backwards as the victim fled the scene after crying 'thank you' to the blonde. "This ain't your business, cunt," the bastard snarled, his breath foul and his eyes bloodshot.

"The hell it isn't," the blonde snarled, before launching herself at him again, slamming him against the brick wall. Just as she was about to punch him, he produced a blade from his pocket and stuck her in her side. She groaned in pain, her already sweaty fingers wrapping around the handle of the switchblade. It felt like a sledgehammer had been swung at her body. Before the rapist could do anything else, Caroline pulled the blade free and sliced at his throat.

He collapsed instantly, scream gurgling from his throat as his hands tried to close the wound. He trembled as her eyes hungrily followed the rivers of blood flowing from him. Everything else in the universe fell away, from the pain in her side to her moral protestations, leaving only her hunger and the fresh blood to occupy her thoughts. She sunk to her knees at his side, her eyes wide, before putting her lips to his torn throat.

She only took a sip before leaning back just a tad, her gums splitting to reveal two sharp canines and the veins beneath her eyes became more prominent. The rapist seized and struggled as she tore into him, gulping his foul blood down greedily.

Caroline could feel the wound in her side healing, but that wasn't all. Every muscle in her body thrummed and sang with a new power. Her eyes could see details in the darkness, watching the shadows move. The pounding of footsteps from the streets hundreds of yards away and the honking of car horns should've been indiscernible to her as a human.

Caroline tossed his carcass aside like it was a rag doll, his terrified eyes staring fixedly up at her. She wiped the blood from her mouth on the back of her hand. Her heart no longer beat inside of her chest. She didn't have an ache to breathe. Her skin was cold, and she was no longer human. She was dead.

"What have I done?" she whispered, before speeding off into the night.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Klaus found the baby vampire sitting on the roof of the One Shell Square building, her feet dangling over the edge. It was about twenty minutes before sunrise.

Caroline didn't even look back before asking him: "Would I die if I jumped?"

The hybrid shrugged and took a seat next to her. "It'd just hurt a lot. Probably would shatter every bone in your body upon impact, but I don't think you'd die." He eyed her. "You're not planning on jumping, are you?"

"Not really," Caroline grimaced and glanced over at him. "How'd you find me?"

"Once you became a vampire, all of those protection wards around you vanished, so I just had my witch friend cook up a locator spell. I don't have to go digging like a deadbeat policeman for your whereabouts anymore."

They sat in silence for a minute, drinking in the sights of New Orleans at dawn. Street vendors that sold coffee and pastries to office workers were setting up shop. Downtown was a mix of concrete industrial bullshit and old beauty. The farther away from the central business district you got, the more beauty bled into your surroundings.

"Funny, isn't it?" Klaus said, bracing his hands on either side of him. "How the office workers and the street vendors think that they're separated by so much. Those business executives think that their class makes them better, that they can see more because they're higher up. But they see nothing. People have forgotten how to cherish things, how to appreciate art and power." He tsked. "Only a hundred and fifty years ago, this place was nothing but a little swamp town. There were more mosquitoes than people.

"And look at this now," he swept his arm over the horizon. "They don't care, they don't even consider this place to be magnificent. People have grown complacent, as if they don't need to fight for their place in this town. But you, my dear, you've never forgotten. How old was your mum when she couldn't stand properly?" he asked.

"Around thirty-two," Caroline sighed. "But she stopped being able to aim a gun long before that."

"You had only a couple years left, didn't you? You knew that you couldn't take your life for granted. You cherished every day that you could wake up to. You refused to let a moment pass without thanking your stars that you could still be _alive_."

"What's your point?" she sighed.

"Why is it so easy for you to take everything for granted now that you have a real chance? Don't think I don't know why you're sitting up here, waiting for the sun to rise," Klaus leaned in closer to her, but she still refused to look at him. "Immortality suits you, love. Don't throw it all away when you haven't even _tasted _it."

"I tasted a rapist, Klaus," Caroline said quietly. "I ripped his throat open, and I _liked _it. I am the thing I never wanted to become. Why should I stick around just to watch myself turn into a monster?"

He smiled, probably the only genuine smile she'd seen him don before. "Humans can be monsters, too, but did you become one then? It's all about choice. That's the whole point of living forever: fuckin' up and then learning from your mistakes."

She laughed. "Since when did you get so preachy?"

"Since I realized that I've only known you for a couple of months, and I don't really want to watch you burn without really having done anything," he took her hand and dropped something into it.

"A ring? You're not proposing to me, are you?" she scoffed.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Get over yourself, sweetheart. It's a daylight ring. I'm not going to force you to wear it. The choice is yours. You can throw away a gift, or you can revel in it." In a flash, he was gone, and Caroline was left alone to see the tiniest glimmer of light beginning to creep over the horizon. All of his poetic bravado aside, Klaus was right: she didn't want to throw a chance at a longer life away.

"Stupid hybrid," she growled, pushing the ring onto her finger. "Hm, he's got good taste in rings, though," she said, impressed. Despite her precarious position, she began to laugh at the ridiculousness of her situation. _I'm going to live forever. _


	10. Superstition

**AN: Last chapter was pretty rushed because I tried getting it all done in one day, and it was originally supposed to be drawn out into two chapters but I just got lazy. Now that I messed up my chapter layout chart thingie, I am going to have to adjust as I go along. (furreal tho I had a chart with all the chapters and summaries and I was so proud of it and then I messed it up and now I have RAGE). **

Caroline spent the first several hours of her new life wandering the streets. Everything seemed so much more alive now. Her eyes could see colors way beyond the human spectrum, from the vibrant pink flowers that hung in baskets from the ceilings over the walkways to the brilliant blues in the clear midmorning sky.

Her senses weren't the only things that were heightened: a new, unnatural strength thrummed through her. Every injury or ache that had plagued her before was gone, replaced with a sense of peaceful electric energy. She had power now, power to run faster than the wind or jump high enough to touch the stars. She'd never had to restrain her own strength before.

There was a vibrancy in her that drew peoples' attention. Passing glances became turned-head stares. Sunlight set her eyes aglow, as if her irises were flawless sapphires. Her hair, while no longer styled into sausage curls, fell in effortless golden waves past her shoulders. But it wasn't really her looks that got attention: it was the way she carried herself. Her head was held high and her strides were even and graceful.

Even so, there wasn't a second that went by without the symphony of beating hearts trying to tempt her into sin. A new darkness, pure and unbidden, lurked inside of her. It was a lust that clawed at her insides, a hunger which tried to consume her. It was almost like a demon trying to possess her, trying to grab ahold of her and break her. For now, she was strong enough to resist.

Part of her worried, as she walked along in the midmorning sun, that one day she wouldn't want to fight her craving anymore. What if she just snapped and tore into the next person that she saw in the street? It could be that family waddling together down the sidewalk, all sporting some colorful slogan t-shirt so obviously purchased in a tourist shop. It could be the woman walking alone, so absorbed in her smartphone she nearly runs into a streetlamp. It could even be one of her friends.

Maybe that's what got her the most. She would never be able to go back, to let the people she loved most see her as the thing they despise. For so long, her friends were the only people she had to keep her grounded. They were her family, and now she had to let them go.

It was the sacrifice that choked her: she could run into any one of them throughout their lifetimes. They'd have moved on and grown up, and Caroline would still be her twenty-three year old self. She'd run into Damon and Elena in their forties, teenage kids in tow, and they'd all but forgotten about their friend that they lost to vampires.

So here she was: in a throng of thousands of people in the Big Easy, the loneliest person on earth.

Suddenly, she remembered him. Klaus. He'd given her the ring that she now wore on her finger. He was her supposed enemy, but he talked her into giving immortality a try. He'd killed one of his minions for laying a hand on her. While he wasn't anywhere near being a friend, he was becoming a solid ally.

It was strange how quickly her loyalties shifted, from her vampire-hunting family to the very monster they hunted. She was out of her element: she obviously hadn't adapted to her new life, and she needed a strong ally to help her along. Having an Original Hybrid (although she still didn't completely understand what that meant) to teach her could either be an enormous advantage or a huge mistake.

Before she'd even put a thought to it, Caroline found herself back at Klaus' warehouse. The imposing concrete structure was an architectural anomaly: with steel slabs sealing the windows shut on the outside. It loomed only a couple blocks from the shipyards on the Mississippi, amongst the monochromatic patterns of rusted out storage facilities.

This wasn't her home. She didn't belong here, but she had nowhere else to go. She hadn't even wandered the halls, she mused to herself as she walked inside. Caroline had only been down in the basement before now, which was much less inviting than what she found on the first level. Gone were the harsh fluorescent lights, the hallways, and the cells. They had been replaced with three main areas: the sitting room (which contained a large plasma screen TV and bean bag chairs), a conference room (which was oddly out of place in a vampire's lair), and a long hall that led into a training room (not unlike the one in her old HQ).

Everyone seemed to have gone their separate ways for the day, presumably hiding out from the sun, and the warehouse seemed to be much less terrifying now that Caroline was no longer a prisoner there. Suddenly, Caroline could hear something akin to hooves pounding towards her from the flight of stairs leading up to the second floor. Before she could even think of protecting herself, she was set upon by one of the largest dogs she'd ever seen.

Rather than attacking her, the dog clumsily skidded into her, his tail wagging and tongue lolling. She couldn't help but laugh. "Oh my god, you are so _cute," _Caroline cried, happy to find something in the warehouse that didn't remind her of death. The English mastiff pup was nearly fully grown, but had obviously not grown accustomed to the longer limbs and overall larger frame.

His fur was soft and silky, so someone around here had to have given him a bath on a weekly basis. The pup's big brown eyes stared up at her inquiringly, as if asking her who she was and why she hadn't been around to scratch his rump before. His ears flopped comically as he flounced around her, so happy to have found another friend.

Caroline giggled, scratching his ears and rubbing his head. "That's odd, usually he doesn't let anyone but Niklaus pet him," a woman's voice suddenly said from the doorway leading into the training room. Caroline looked up to see another blonde staring down at her, her hair braided and her arms folded. She sauntered into the sitting room, heels clipping against the linoleum floor.

"They say that dogs are the greatest judges of character," Caroline replied as the mastiff growled at the other blonde in annoyance.

"Polo's not the sharpest tool in the shed," the woman seemed to size up the baby vampire as she steered clear of the pup, which leaned on Caroline's thigh to show protectiveness. Polo's eyes almost seemed to narrow in distrust at the woman, so Caroline was willing to bet that he was smarter than she let on.

"I'm Caroline," the baby vamp offered cautiously, understanding that the woman sizing her up was an older, therefore more powerful, vampire.

The woman cracked a smile. "Rebekah. So tell me Caroline, how did you come to be a vampire?"

"Ask your… brother?" Caroline took a shot in the dark.

Rebekah raised her eyebrows. "How in the hell did you guess that?"

"You referred to him as 'Niklaus', you have similar accents, so I'm guessing you two grew up in the same area, and you have an extraordinary amount of cockiness surrounding you," Caroline shrugged. "My mom was the sheriff."

"_Oh_, you must be the vampire hunter Nik's been prattling on about. He was terrified that you would turn and then come and kill everyone," Rebekah eyed Caroline again.

"I'm not _that _good. I did get killed, after all," the baby vampire confessed.

Rebekah waved her hand. "Happens to the best of us." Polo shrank closer to Caroline, obviously distressed in the presence of the older vampire.

"Are you a hybrid, too?" Caroline asked.

Rebekah arched an eyebrow. "You're awfully knowledgeable about my family for only being a day old. But no, Nik is the only hybrid in existence. He can't quite figure out how to turn anyone else, poor thing."

"Maybe that's because the witch who set up the spell designed it to confine me to failure," a familiar voice snipped. Caroline looked and saw Klaus walking downstairs, his curls mussed but his smirk completely intact. "Caroline, I'm pleased you decided not to meet the sunrise as a pile of ashes," he said, before glancing down at Polo, who immediately zoomed to his side. "That's odd, he usually doesn't like new people," he mused.

"It's probably because I smell like trash," Caroline sighed. "I haven't showered since you kidnapped me a couple of days ago."

"Well you can't shower _here_," Rebekah said.

"I wasn't asking to," Caroline replied defensively. "I was just making a fact known that I smell like horse shit and blood."

"Why did you come _here_, then?" Rebekah demanded.

"Easy, sister," Klaus growled warningly. "I don't appreciate your tone. Caroline is free to come and go as long as she doesn't try to kill any of us."

"Actually," Caroline interjected. "I did come here to set up a deal."

Klaus raised his eye brows in surprise. "Did you now? What can I do for you?"

"I need a job," she deadpanned. "And I can't just go wandering in anywhere with my I.D.'s because after my friends have me declared dead, Caroline Forbes will no longer be a valuable employee. All I'm asking for are a forger and a real estate agent that can find a cheap apartment without any questions asked."

Klaus laughed. "You're given an eternity and infinite strength, so you choose to go to work."

Caroline smiled coldly. "I'd rather not have to steal from people or join the Vampire Mafia."

"An honest woman," he said wryly. "I have several forgers on payroll. I'll get you a couple of ID's and a birth certificate. As for the real estate agent, my brother Elijah is the largest landowner in the city. He can get you an entire warehouse."

She nodded. "How much for everything?"

"Excuse me?"

"How much money? You gave me a daylight ring, and now you're setting me up for ID's and a place to stay. How much?"

Rebekah stared at her brother, aghast. "You gave her a _daylight ring_? We don't just hand those out willy-nilly, Nik, especially not to peasants. No offence, darling," she added to Caroline.

Klaus put his hand up, which silenced his sister. "I know you don't have any money, Caroline. You can work off your debt for the ID's and the apartment by running errands for me. And as for the ring, that was an investment."

Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Investment?"

"I have a feeling you'll be an asset to us. I didn't want to see an excellent fighter like you die sitting on a rooftop."

"And what kind of errands will I be running for you?"

Klaus grinned, a perverse gleam in his eye. "Doing what you've done for years, darling: hunting vampires."

**Short chapter, I know, especially after the long wait. School and marching band are eating up way more of my time than I thought they would. Also, if you guys notice anything in the chapter that you think warrants a trigger warning, can y'all let me know? I'm usually pretty good about it, but since I'm not triggered by anything, I can only guess what some of the content would do. **


	11. Bad Religion

**AN: Now that Caroline is a vampire, she'll be able to do more advanced fighting moves against her opponents. Most of the floor work (wrestling) will be using leg locks and putting people into arm bars. I'll have her learning some Vovinam Viet Vo Dao later on (which, by the way, is hella hard), from one of the Originals. **

**Trigger warnings for violence and mention of child abductions. **

"You want me to hunt vampires," Caroline repeated, dumbfounded, "_Why?" _ It's not that she didn't want to hunt them, she was just surprised that Klaus himself was endorsing her to kill her own kind.

Klaus grinned. "You've been trained extensively, and your track record as human was impressive."

"But she's a _girl,"_ Rebekah said, glancing at the baby vampire to see if there was something that she was missing.

"And so are you. Does that make you any less formidable?" her brother retorted. "Equality is an asset, Bekah: female vampires are just as strong as male ones, but humans are not suspicious when we must deal with them."

"Careful Klaus, you're starting to sound like a good person," Caroline teased.

Klaus feigned being offended. "I'll have you know that I take candy from children on a regular basis."

Rebekah nodded. "It's true, he's a fiend."

"Then how do you explain having this little guy around?" Caroline scratched Polo's head. Polo had circled around her to stand between her and Klaus and away from the other immortal blonde.

"I've always had a soft spot for fellow strays," Klaus said, grinning as Polo came over and leaned up against his master. That gentle, vulnerable gleam in the man's eyes only remained for a moment, but it was long enough for Caroline to notice. It was a chink in his armor, a glimpse into a different side of the man so many feared. It was gone a minute later. "Caroline, would you mind accompanying me to the conference room so we can hash out the details of your employment?"

She nodded hesitantly, ignoring Rebekah's suggestively raised eyebrow in their direction. Klaus, with Polo at his heels, led her to a room she'd passed on her way inside of his warehouse. In the center of the room was a large touch screen computer built into a wooden conference table. It lay so the screen was level with the tabletop, and lit up as Klaus entered the room. Maps of the city hung on the walls, as well as atlases of the United States and even a few maps of Europe. Push pins and markers pinpointed particular locations on the maps of all scales.

"What is this, James Bond?" Caroline scoffed incredulously. "What are all of these maps for?"

Klaus smirked smugly. "My dear baby vampire, I must inform you that your old operating procedure, while efficient for a rag-tag team of humans, is antiquated. What you see here marked in red are my factories," he referred to a map of the continental US on the wall, "one of which you and your team managed to shut down in a matter of minutes. On a more localized scale, this map shows locations of anything from rogue vampires to werewolf sightings to nests of rebels, and even alleged whereabouts of Marcel and his allies."

The map he was pointing to had articles and notes push pinned with labels in particular places on the glossy exterior. "What do you mean 'alleged'? How do you not know where Marcel is?" Caroline asked.

"Marcel was nothing but a recently emancipated slave when we got involved, and New Orleans was not much better. When I left him to cultivate the city and let it grow, he changed along with it. He became greedy and unpredictable, slaughtering entire covens of witches and werewolves. Although he's fostered economic growth, he's built a small empire on corruption."

"And he is different from you… how?" Caroline asked, not really seeing the difference between the two vampires.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "I exercise a marginal amount of restraint in an effort to maintain the secrecy of our species' existence. Each day he grows more reckless, and the risk that our presence will be made known, that our weaknesses will be made common knowledge, so a thousand more vampire hunters will roam each city with a thirst for our blood. Marcel's existence is detrimental to the advancement of our species."

"Where do I come in, then?"

"You, my dear, have proven yourself very well in hand to hand combat. Marcel encourages nests of vampires who are not inclined to ally with him to wreak havoc in the city, thus drawing unwanted attention from local hunters. I need you to take down some particular nests that have been kidnapping children and leaving their bodies on the banks of the river."

"Are you just saying that to motivate me?"

"What?"

"Using the deaths of children to persuade me to do your dirty work," Caroline narrowed her eyes at him.

"No. I hadn't thought of it, really," Klaus looked confused. "I was merely stating a fact to inform you of the vampires you'll be hunting."

"But does it really matter to you that they're eating children? Or does it just bother you that they're not being discreet about it?"

Klaus winced. "I don't want you to mistake me for a moral person."

"But?" she pushed, wanting him to elaborate.

"But I will have you know that I don't eat children. There are plenty of adults in this world that hold much more blood."

Caroline obviously didn't get the answer she wanted, but she decided not to push further. "Where do these bastards hole up?" she sighed.

Klaus pulled up an old neighborhood map on the touch screen and circled a block in the lower left corner. "I've got it narrowed down to buildings on that city block, based on the comings and goings of school children in the area, as well as the amount of abandoned houses in the area. I couldn't narrow it down further without actually going there myself."

"And you don't want to risk going into Marcel's territory," Caroline added.

He made a frustrated noise. "It's not his territory, darling. I just don't see the necessity of going down there myself when I could send someone else instead."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's get something straight: I'll work for you as long as I get to slay vampires, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be your little slave to call upon when you're too lazy to do errands."

Klaus smiled genuinely at her. "That's why I like you: so much more than a pretty face. Do we have a deal, then?"

"Hell yes," she shook his hand. "But first things first: I need a shower and a fresh change of clothes."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was around one o'clock in the afternoon when Caroline pulled up to the block she was supposed to investigate. The car, a 1999 Chrysler 300, was something Klaus had lying around. That was something that could be said for everything that she had with her: the borrowed clothes (which were actually some pretty rockin' jeans and heels that Rebekah no longer wanted), the smart phone (which had Klaus' phone number and the detailed map of the city programmed into it), and the mobile arsenal that she was carrying with her.

Klaus, of course, had plenty of vervain grenades, guns loaded with wooden bullets, and good ole wooden stakes. Caroline wished that she could wear her signature vervain-infused brass knuckles (with her mother's name carved into them), but she couldn't wear them without hurting herself. Somehow, it panged her that she was hunting alone for the first time. Her friends wouldn't be there to have her back, to cover her if she needed to reload, or to get her out if she got injured.

Caroline stuck a couple of stakes in her waistband and a gun into an ankle holster, not really needing much more. Her body was a weapon now, capable of healing instantly and inflicting much more damage than she used to only dream of. Part of her was afraid she might get cocky, or other vampires would be able to exploit weaknesses her new body had not gotten accustomed to. Any misstep, any underestimation could get her killed.

She took in a deep breath and got out of the car, eyeing the block of abandoned apartment buildings warily. The hollowed-out brick buildings had once been textile mills in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, spinning cotton picked from surrounding areas into clothing and fabric. Still stained into the faded brick on the outside was the faint water line, a scar from the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina eight years ago. Windows were either chipped and fragmented or boarded up with faded and warped slabs of plywood.

Most of the place was empty: she couldn't hear the pounding hearts of human inhabitants or even the small pitter-patter of rats' feet on the rotten wooden floors. The only thing she could hear- as she made her way around the building-were low whispers echoing off of the basement walls. The vampires probably didn't have daylight rings, so they were unable to flee the premises. While they were presumably older than she was, and there were at least six of them, Caroline knew she could take them.

Caroline circled three times around the abandoned apartment building, checking for exits and possible points of entry. All she found, other than a fire door, were a couple of air vents that led out of the basement up to the sidewalk. The air vents were just wide enough to squeeze through, but she would make a lot of noise doing it. She opened the covers to the air vents and (making sure that no one was around to hear), threw in a couple of vervain grenades.

They exploded violently, shattering the glass canisters filled with vervain and thus penetrating the flesh of her intended targets. She flashed inside, following the sound of the screams to the basement, where she found five vampires clutching their molten and shredded flesh in agony, desperately clawing for some sort of respite.

The basement couldn't have been more than five hundred square feet of mildew-infested mattresses lying haphazardly in piles. To Caroline's dismay, she spotted a corpse strewn across one of the mattresses, eyes glazed and completely bloodless. Thankfully, the corpse wasn't a child, but that didn't mean that she was any less angry.

Caroline's canines elongated and the veins underneath her eyes became more prominent. Her fists were raised as her gaze trailed over her five opponents that had healed up and looked mighty pissed.

"Sup fellas," she chirped darkly, "I heard you've been eating kids." They all surged forward at once, moving inhumanly fast towards her. When she was human, all she would be able to see was a blur, a flash of movement picked up by her peripheral vision. Now that she was a vampire, she saw everything in slow motion.

Just before they were all about to crash into her, Caroline jumped up and flipped onto one of their backs in a mock-piggy-back hold before she pulled his head off with her bare hands. This, of course, caused another to slam into her, shoving his shoulder into her side as he tried to push her into the wall. As his back was exposed to her, she pulled out a stake and shoved it into his heart between his shoulder blades.

After the vamp's corpse fell from her, another two pinned her arms to the wall, hitting her so hard that the plaster on the wall crumbled as her hands were pushed further behind her. The other vamp rushed her, taking advantage of her vulnerable position. Her legs were free, so she used the force of her opponents pinning her to be able to swing up and kick the vamp squarely in the chest with all of her might. He flew backwards a good ten feet, giving Caroline space to yank her hands free and pull the Glock from her ankleholster.

She dealt a round to each of the vamps who had pinned her up against the wall, straight into their hearts. The final vamp tried rushing her again, sweeping her legs out from under her. Without missing a beat, Caroline managed to wrestle him into an arm bar, by pinning his arm between her knees and pushing off of his torso with her feet. The arm snapped with a savage yank, giving her enough time to grab her gun and shoot him in the kneecaps.

He groaned in pain, his teeth gritted together as he was effectively incapacitated. "How do you get the kids?" Caroline demanded, pointing her gun at his crotch. "I know you can't go outside during the day, so how do you get the kids on their way home from school?"

"Hu-human supplier," he coughed.

"Did you compel them to bring you the children?" She snarled.

"We-we paid her. Thousand bucks per kid," he was shaking, he was in so much pain.

"Is she coming today?" Caroline fired a round into his stomach when he didn't answer right away, "_Answer _me."

"_YES_," he screamed. "She's supposed to deliver around four. P-please, _please_-,"

"Please what?" She grabbed the lapels of his coat and brought his face as close as she could stomach. "Please spare you? Rot in _hell_," she spat, before shoving a stake into his heart. There was some semblance of chaotic silence thrumming inside of that tiny little basement. The gray corpses of the vampires were hideous, veins protruding oddly from their mottled flesh.

There was one human corpse, a young man, not older than twenty. His dead eyes looked sad, lost and terrified. With the same hands she just used to slaughter five of her fellow vampires, she gently shut his eyes out of respect. Before she could do anything else, she heard footsteps in the floor above her. A woman's, clacking on the wood, and a child's, plodding dutifully and clumsily alongside.

"How much farther, lady?" A small voice asked as they came down the stairs to the basement.

"We're he-," the woman was about to respond as she came upon the bloodbath. The little boy, who was holding her hand, began to cry. Caroline stood, her eyes still black, and glowered at the woman. She sauntered towards the pair of humans.

"Now, I could sort of understand if you'd been compelled to do this," the vampire growled as she walked, "But doing this of your _own free will_ escapes every ounce of me. How do you sleep at night?"

The woman, frail and middle-aged, placed the boy in front of her. She began to shake as her eyes widened, terrified. "I needed the money," she cried defensively.

Caroline met eyes with the crying boy and smiled gently. "You don't have to be afraid," she told him consolingly, trying to exert enough influence over him to compel him into a state of calm. She'd never compelled anyone before, and hoped that whatever she did wouldn't have any lasting harm. The boy sniffled and wiped his eyes, so the compulsion must've worked.

In a flash, Caroline had dragged the bony woman away from the child. She could smell alcohol on the woman's clothing. She turned away from the boy, shielding him from the sight of her biting into the woman's throat and draining the bitch dry. The woman was disgusting, but the blood was warm and sated Caroline's new hunger. She dropped the corpse onto the concrete floor when she was done.

Caroline crouched down to meet the boy's gaze. "When your parents ask you what happened, you tell them you got lost. All you did was wander around a little. You won't remember the mean lady and the vampire that killed her. You remember this basement, or the people in it. All you'll remember is walking around, lost, until you suddenly found yourself at home. Okay?" The little boy nodded dutifully. "I'm going to walk you home, alright? Once you step inside your house, you'll forget about me."

The vampire took the child's hand and walked him out of the dark, dank basement. As she stepped outside, keeping pace with his tiny strides, Caroline was reminded that the bad parts of life were made up for by the good parts. The boy smiled at the midafternoon sunlight, his teeth crooked and cheeks adorably chubby. Walking him home was probably the best twenty minutes of her undead life.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

When she came back to Klaus' place, the sun was setting over the city. It took some searching to find him, because he was in his bedroom on the second floor. "Klaus?" she asked, knocking on the door.

"Come in, love," he answered. The hybrid was sitting up in his bed, Polo beside him, with gigantic stacks of paper all around him. "I'm just going over the books and financial statements. We haven't been making as much this month with our factories as we were last month."

"My heart breaks for your human slaughterhouses," Caroline sighed.

"For the record, we only keep the humans for a couple of months and then we set them free," Klaus said, making a note on one of the spreadsheets. "Though it's not as cost effective as keeping them for life. But our customers get tired of the same blood after a couple of months."

"Just stop talking, Klaus. I came here to let you know that I took care of the little nest of baby killers, not listen to you ramble on about your business of torturing innocent people," she snapped, her voice rough.

"Have you been crying?" Klaus asked, cocking his head to the side. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I just had to walk a little boy home after he was kidnapped to be ripped apart. The only reason he's alive is because you told me about those bastards. What if you hadn't sent me today? Hm? How long have you known about those freaks?" Caroline demanded.

"A couple of months," he shrugged.

"A couple of _months?_" Caroline repeated. "How many kids died because you were too lazy to go down there yourself?"

"I happen to have more pressing matters, Caroline. I have a multinational corporation with thousands of employees. I have a family to take care of and Marcel to wage war against. And now I have _you_."

"I'm glad to know where your priorities are, Klaus," Caroline said coldly.

"I have been nothing but kind to you, my dear, and this is how you talk to me? I'm your employer," Klaus growled. Polo sensed the tension between the pair and jumped off of the bed.

"No, Klaus, I'm your hunting dog. You tell me where to go and I'll go. That doesn't mean I'll see you for anything other than what you are: a monster."

Klaus got up from his bed, bristling with irritation. "You've fed recently. I can smell it on you. Don't tell me that you didn't enjoy slaughtering that nest of vampires. Don't look at me and tell me that you don't _love_ being a hunting dog."

"Go fuck yourself," she hissed. "You don't know shit about me."

"I can see it in you. When we first met, all I could see in your eyes was your violence and your bloodlust. You have a monster in you as well, and it's howling to get out," Klaus blurred up to her and put his face inches from hers. "Deep down, you _long _to have your perfect feathers ruffled." He leaned in close, just an inch from her lips before Caroline backed up.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this. I-I just...," she panicked, breathing erratically, "I'm sorry Klaus." She ran, leaving behind a slightly hurt Klaus.

**Sorry about the violence, but I really wanted to show Caroline's fierce protectiveness of the innocent. (like when she killed twelve witches for Bonnie) **

**Love y'all!**


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